


A Moment of Post-Regeneration Idiocy.

by Shase



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: A shit ton of crying, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, And it snowballed into this, Basically I wanted to read this but I couldn't find it, Episode: s05e01 The Eleventh Hour, Gen, Kid Amy Pond, Rory gets hella stressed for a hot minute, This was just a little idea I had, Time Travel, Very Brief Panic Attack, but it's all good, obviously, so i wrote it myself
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-05
Updated: 2020-11-05
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:13:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 32,847
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27400255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shase/pseuds/Shase
Summary: "Can I come?" Amelia requested hopefully, stepping closer to the TARDIS."Not safe in here. Not-" The Doctor began."Well, you can't leave me here." Amelia interrupted."Not with that Prisoner Zero running around." She continued to interrupt as she came right up to the Time Machine, trying and failing to pull herself up to where the Doctor was perched.The Doctor looked up at the dark, possibly empty house, then back down to Amelia's pleading face and lastly the long fall from here to the TARDIS library. Trying to weigh up which held more risk and which would lead to fixing the TARDIS faster. And in a moment of what could only be called post-regeneration idiocy, the Doctor came to, what he thought, was his logical conclusion."Fine." He said in mild defeat.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~AKA: What would happen if, when eight-year-old Amelia asked to go with him, the Doctor had said 'yes'?
Relationships: Amy Pond & Rory Williams, Eleventh Doctor & Amy Pond, Eleventh Doctor & Rory Williams
Kudos: 19





	1. Chapter 1

It had been a very long night for Amelia Pond. Yet it was scarcely 11:25pm. 

Firstly, a crazy man had crashed in her garden, then he'd thrown food all over her house, and then he'd started having a one-sided conversation with the giant eyeball that apparently lived in her bedroom wall.

All in all, it was pretty safe to say Amelia had not expected this to be what happened when she prayed to Father Christmas for help.

And she really did need help; there was a crack in Amelia's wall. It had been there for as long as she could remember. But it wasn't an ordinary crack; there was something confusingly sinister about it. Sounds emanated from it. Voices. Most recently, the voices had been ranting about someone called 'Prisoner Zero'. But, aside from the name, Amelia couldn't quite figure out what the voices were talking about.

And now this ridiculous, raggedy man, who called himself 'the Doctor', had wrenched the terrifying crack wide open. Instead of just getting rid of it, like she'd asked, he'd forced it to open as far as it could go, revealing the eerie darkness beyond.

"Prisoner Zero has escaped." A booming voice announced from somewhere in the dark.

"Prisoner Zero has escaped." The disembodied voice repeated.

"Hello? HELLO?" The Doctor called warily into the cavernous darkness that was taking up most of Amelia's bedroom wall.

But it wasn't just darkness for long; soon, the entire space beyond her wall was filled with an unimaginably large eye. The unwitting duo just stared at it, and unsurprisingly the eyeball stared back, just observing them for a moment.

"What's that?" Amelia whispered in shock.

Then, just as abruptly as it had appeared, the eye sent out a small ray of light at the Doctor, who promptly fell over on to Amelia's bed.

Suddenly, the two halves of Amelia's bedroom wall began to close, something the eyeball didn't seem all too happy about. But, despite the eye's feelings, the crack not only snapped shut but vanished entirely. The giant eyeball disappearing from view as it did.

"There, you see? Told you it would close, good as new." The Doctor stated optimistically from the bed, pulling his psychic paper out of his trouser pocket.

"What was that thing? Was that Prisoner Zero?" Amelia asked, fidgeting where she stood, looking a tad nervous.

"No, I think that was Prisoner Zero's guard." The Doctor answered as he glanced over at the wall where the crack had been.

"But whatever it was," he continued, looking back at Amelia.

"It sent me a message. Psychic paper. Takes a lovely little message." The Doctor declared, waggling the leather wallet in her direction before opening it up to read.

"'Prisoner Zero has escaped'." He read allowed.

"But why tell us? Unless..." The Doctor pondered, getting up from the bed and shoving the psychic paper away.

"Unless what?" Amelia queried worriedly.

"Unless Prisoner Zero escaped through here." The Doctor clarified, regarding the room as if Prisoner Zero was going to jump out at a moments notice.

"But it couldn't have; we'd know." He muttered doubtfully. With a final glance around the bedroom, he dashed out into the corridor. Amelia trailing not far behind.

The Doctor stopped just outside Amelia's bedroom, eyes darting around, searching for any clue of what he might be dealing with. Finding nothing out of the ordinary, he turned back to face Amelia.

"It's difficult. Brand new me, nothing works yet. But there's something I'm missing." He tried to explain, seeming slightly frustrated.

His irritation dispersed minutely, quickly replaced with wariness as he sensed something peculiar to his right. Slowly he looked, despite the part of him that desperately urged him not to. But the feeling only succeeded in making him want to look all the more.

"In the corner of my eye..." The Doctor murmured, staring at the end of the corridor. Amelia followed his gaze and looked to, although she wasn't all that sure what they were meant to be looking at.

A bell suddenly rings out, disrupting the mildly eerie silence of the house.

Amelia and the Doctor shared a confused look. But the Doctor's is quickly replaced with dawning realisation.

It was the TARDIS Cloister bell.

"NO!" The Doctor bellowed as he pelted down the corridor, Amelia quick to follow.

"No, no, no, no, no, no!!" He continued to yell, practically throwing himself down the stairs.

"What? What is it?" Amelia questioned, taking the stairs slightly more carefully. But the Doctor was already out the door and in the garden, so she just followed him.

"I've got to get back in there." The Doctor exclaimed, wrapping a rope around the TARDIS door handles before clambering up the side of the fallen, blue box.

"The engines are phasing. It's going to burn!" He announced in a panic, glancing down into the TARDIS.

"But it's just a box. How can a box have engines?" Amelia pressed, finally catching up to him and trying to understand what was happening.

"It's not just a box." The Doctor corrected, looking mildly affronted.

"It's a Time Machine." He stated matter of factly.

"What, a real one? You've got a real Time Machine?" Amelia asked, amazed but doubtful. Although with everything she'd already seen tonight, she might just believe him.

"Not for much longer if I can't get her stabilised. Five-minute hop into the future should do it." The Doctor hurriedly explained, readying himself for the jump.

"Can I come?" Amelia requested hopefully, stepping closer to the TARDIS.

"Not safe in here. Not-" The Doctor began.

"Well, you can't leave me here." Amelia interrupted.

"Not with that Prisoner Zero running around." She continued to interrupt as she came right up to the Time Machine, trying and failing to pull herself up to where the Doctor was perched.

The Doctor looked up at the dark, possibly empty house, then back down to Amelia's pleading face and lastly, the long fall from here to the TARDIS library. Trying to weigh up which held more risk and which would lead to fixing the TARDIS faster.

And in a moment of what could only be called post-regeneration idiocy, the Doctor came to, what he thought, was his logical conclusion.

"Fine." He said in mild defeat.

"But the rules still apply, even more so now." The Doctor noted grabbing hold of Amelia's hands and pulling her up to sit next to him.

"Do everything I tell you, don't ask stupid questions and don't wander off." He reiterated, but Amelia was barely listening, too entranced by what she was seeing below her dangling feet.

"It's...it's bigger on the inside." She stuttered in awe.

"I know." The Doctor confirmed, sounding proud.

"It's a long way down." She clarified.

"I know, hold on tight." He affirmed in a more sober tone, offering up his side. In response, Amelia wrapped her arms around the Doctor's middle in a constrictive grasp, almost further tearing his already torn shirt.

The Doctor folded his arm around Amelia in return, sensing her fear.

"Trust me, I'm the Doctor." He expressed, attempting to be reassuring, not that it helped much.

He grabbed the rope he'd attached to the doors and then...

...they jumped.

A scream of fear and an almost joyfully yelled 'GERONIMO!' could be heard before a sudden splash, followed by the TARDIS doors slamming shut, being pulled by the rope.

The Time Machine dematerialised from sight, leaving a destroyed shed and an empty garden in its wake.

~~~~~

The TARDIS rematerialised in the garden, now in an upright position. It was a bright and sunny day—clearly more time than five minutes had passed.

The door was quickly wrenched open as Amelia, and the Doctor ran out, spluttering and coughing, smoke billowing out of the TARDIS behind them. The Doctor silently took note of the change in time of day.

"I thought you said doing that would fix it, not make it worse!" Amelia complained, bent double trying to get the smoke out of her lungs as the Doctor shut the TARDIS door.

"I said 'stabilise', never said anything about fixing anything." The Doctor tried to defend.

"How is that-?" Amelia started, turning to face the Doctor, only to stop when she finally noticed the sunlight.

"It's daytime." She observed with wide eyes.

"Indeed, it is." The Doctor agreed, prepared to be criticised for his most recent slip-up.

"IT REALLY IS A TIME MACHINE!!" Amelia exclaimed, grasping the Doctor's forearms in her excitement and almost throwing off his balance.

"Um, well, yes." The Doctor affirmed, utterly bewildered. Not really expecting this reaction.

"Wait," Amelia uttered, suddenly less excited as mild fear crept in.

"It's daytime. You said only five minutes. How long has it really been?" Amelia questioned with worry, tightening her hold on the Doctor's arms.

"Um..." The Doctor murmured in response, unsure how to answer.

"Doctor, my Aunt might be worried sick. How long have we been gone!?" Amelia demanded, slightly shaking the Doctor in her urgency.

"I...I don't know?" He offered up unhelpfully.

A disgruntled 'Ugh!' was all the Doctor got in return as Amelia let go of his person and turned away from him.

"Auntie Sharon!!" She yelled as she ran at full pelt toward the house.

"It's okay, Auntie! I'm back!!" Amelia continued, opening the back door and running inside.

The Doctor just watched her go, TARDIS still smoking behind him. Thoughts of just leaving now, to avoid angry Aunties with hands fully equipped and ready for smacking him with, drifted through his head. He absentmindedly rubbed his left cheek.

But then thoughts of Prisoner Zero and his musings about its whereabouts returned to him, and he was quickly following her inside.

"Amelia! Wait, I remembered! I figured out what I was missing!!" The Doctor called after her as he ran through the house and up the stairs.

"You've got to get out of here! Amelia?" He carried on, stopping his chase at the door near the top of the stairs.

He'd noticed it the last time he'd been here, which from his point of view had only been five minutes or so ago.

He used his sonic on the door, the results of which only confirming his suspicions.

"Prisoner Zero's here." The Doctor whispered to himself.

"Prisoner Zero is here! Prisoner Zero is- it's- AMELIA!?" He persisted, now at a much louder volume.

Hearing a floorboard creak behind him, he spun around just in time to see a cricket bat flying towards his head and then it all went dark.

~~~~~

"You shouldn't have done that! He's only trying to help!!".

The Doctor began to wake up to the sound of Amelia shouting at someone and hoped it's not him. Again.

"'Breaking and entering' doesn't help anybody, now can you please tell me who the two of you are?" An unknown masculine voice asked her.

"Cricket bat. I'm getting cricket bat." The Doctor muttered, making his consciousness known.

"Yeah, sorry, the bat was probably overdoing it. I- No, in fact, you broke into my house. It was justified." The masculine voice from earlier corrected himself mid-sentence. Only now that the Doctor's eyes were open he could see where the voice was coming from.

It was a lanky twenty-something-year-old male with dirty-blonde hair wearing blue hospital smocks with a grey, checkered hoodie pulled over the top. He had an ID card attached at his waist, which identified him as 'Rory Williams'. Doing its job quite nicely.

Not caring what this 'Rory' had to say, the Doctor attempted to jump to his feet from his position on the floor. Only to collapse back down, realising too late that he'd been handcuffed to the radiator behind him.

"Well, that's much better. Brand new me. Whack on the head, that's just what I needed." The Doctor snarked, looking particularly agitated.

"I tried to stop him, but he wouldn't listen," Amelia explained, looking apologetically down at the Doctor.

"And what do you mean, 'your house'?" She demanded, looking anything but apologetically up at Rory.

"Um...it means exactly what it sounds like it means. It means this house, that we're currently in, belongs to me." Rory pointed out like it was evident because really it was.

"This is my house. Well. It's my Aunt's house, but I live here." Amelia snarled up at Rory, almost daring him to disagree.

"I don't know who you or your Aunt are, but-" Rory began, looking steadily more confused.

"My Auntie Sharon! She should be here! What have you done with her!?" Amelia accused starting to get really annoyed.

"'Sharon'? As in Sharon Pond?" Rory queried, voice going hushed, looking all of a sudden as though he'd seen a ghost.

"Yes!! Where is she??" Amelia urged, stepping closer to Rory.

"Sharon Pond hasn't lived here for a long time," Rory uttered, practically whispering, taking a small step back from Amelia.

"How long?" The Doctor interjected, finally rejoining the discussion, wanting to gauge how late they really were.

Rory glanced between the two intruders as if trying to work something out.

"How long!?" Amelia reiterated, much louder and far angrier.

"Six months." Rory blurted out, his back hitting the wall as he stepped back from Amelia.

"No, not six months. We couldn't be that late, surely?" The Doctor rebutted, really hoping he hadn't messed up that badly.

"NO! IT CAN'T BE! It...But Auntie Sharon she- she can't- she..." Amelia stumbled over her words in her distress.

"You said only five minutes! FIVE MINUTES!! And then you'd have just left me for six months!" She continued, turning on the Doctor.

"I know." He replied quietly, looking away.

"And now my Aunt, she'll think- she'll think I'm..." Amelia started but couldn't finish, beginning to tear up.

"I know. I'm sorry, Amelia." The Doctor muttered, glancing back up at Amelia and looking very sombre slumped against the radiator as he was.

"'Amelia'...?" Rory mouthed to himself, going unnoticed.

"Ugh! NO! No! I don't believe you!" Amelia yelled, anger coming back to her as she turned again on Rory, who already looked quite fearful.

"You're Lying! You're-" She denounced but stopped mid-sentence, abruptly looking as scared as Rory did as she scurried over to crouch near the Doctor.

"Doctor, what if- what if he's lying??" Amelia whispered to the Doctor, grasping at the edge of his ragged shirt.

In response, the Doctor just gave her a bemused look, waiting for her to elaborate.

"What if he's lying and he's really Prisoner Zero!? What if my Auntie Sharon hasn't been here for so long, not because she moved away but because he...hurt her??" Amelia continued, eyes going wide.

"That's a pretty good theory." The Doctor mused, gently nodding his head in agreement.

"I would never-!" Rory started, looking aghast and finally taking a step away from the wall.

"But no." The Doctor disagreed, looking up amusedly at Rory.

"Prisoner Zero wouldn't just show it's self like this; it's in hiding. And if he really was Prisoner Zero, we'd be dead already." The Doctor rationalised.

"Oh," Amelia uttered, letting go of the Doctor's shirt.

"Are you sure?" She asked, seeming not wholly convinced.

"Yep, completely sure. Trust me, I-" The Doctor tried to reassure.

"You're 'the Doctor', yeah, I know." Amelia sighed, looking now less scared and more just sad.

"Actually, I was going to say 'Trust me, I know about this sort of thing', but that works too. More efficient, actually." The Doctor supposed, glancing at Amelia sympathetically.

"Okay, err...sorry but...um," Rory began, gaining the attention of the two forlorn intruders sat on his landing.

"What exactly is...um 'Prisoner Zero'?? And also why is she calling you 'the Doctor'?" He inquired, just trying to make sense of the situation.

"She's calling me 'the Doctor' because that's what everyone calls me." The Doctor supplied helpfully.

"Right! Obviously! And 'Prisoner Zero' is what...?" Rory inquired, with a lot less hesitation this time and a lot more exasperated sarcasm.

"How many rooms?" The Doctor fired out abruptly.

"Um...what?" Rory asked, confused by the sudden change in topic.

"On this floor, how many rooms are there? Count them for me now." The Doctor requested more clearly.

"What has that got to do with anything??" Rory questioned.

"Answer. Now." The Doctor requested with more force.

"Five," Rory said with a scowl.

"Six." The Doctor quipped back, earning a confused look from not only Rory but Amelia as well.

"Wha...what do you mean 'six'?" Rory implored, baffled.

"There are six rooms on this floor." The Doctor clarified, looking rather smugly up at Rory's bewildered face.

"There's really not, Doctor." Amelia chipped in, getting up from her crouched position to stand closer to Rory once more.

"Look." The Doctor instructed.

"Look where?" Amelia hastened, wanting to understand.

"Exactly where you don't want to look, where you never want to look. The corner of your eye, look behind you." The Doctor urged, willing them to see it so he could hurry this up, get out of these handcuffs and sort everything out.

Slowly, almost in sync, the two of them turned to look at the end of the corridor. Only to find a door.

A door neither of them had ever seen before.

Amelia made an audible gasp, although magically appearing doors were hardly the strangest thing she'd seen in the last hour.

"How?... How can there suddenly just be another door? That I've never seen? That no-one's ever seen??" Rory prattled on in shock, edging towards the door.

"I should have. There's a perception filter all round the door. I sensed it the last time I was here." The Doctor explained with a look of frustration.

"But that's...that's a room, a whole room I never even noticed," Rory stressed, continuing ever closer to the door with Amelia beginning to shuffle along with him.

"The filter stops you from noticing." The Doctor informed, attempting to wriggle out of his restraint once he realised what they were doing.

"Something came here a while ago to hide. It's still hiding, and you need to uncuff me now." He warned, becoming more desperate as the seconds trickled by and the two got nearer to the danger.

"I- I can't. The key, I...um lost it." Rory murmured, not really paying attention, almost stood right outside the room.

"You lost it!? Why would you put me in handcuffs you lost the key to?" The Doctor squawked, getting distracted.

But he soon got back on track when he saw Rory reach for the door handle.

"Stay away from that door! Do not touch that door!!" He yelled, really straining on the handcuffs now, wishing he could get loose and stop them.

Paying the Doctor no mind, Rory grabbed the door handle and turned it.

It was unlocked.

"LISTEN TO ME, DO NOT OPEN THAT!!" The Doctor bellowed, desperate for them to listen, but Rory opened it on up regardless and made his way inside. Amelia peered in after him, about to follow.

"Amelia, stop." The Doctor pleaded, trying to save her at least if not both.  
Amelia glanced back at her raggedy friend, who was leaning as far away from the radiator as he possibly could while still anchored down by the cuffs.

She wanted to listen, but the mystery of what was behind the door was too strong. Her curiosity was getting the better of her. With a quick 'Sorry!', she followed Rory inside.

"Why does no-one ever listen to me? Do I just have a face that nobody listens to!?" The Doctor grumbled loudly into the empty corridor.

"Again." He grumbled to himself, searching his pockets for his sonic screwdriver, momentarily having forgotten it.

But it didn't matter anyway; he didn't even have it.

"My screwdriver, where is it?" The Doctor asked, just finding more and more dead ends in his quest to get out of the damn handcuffs.

~

Inside the mystery room, Rory and Amelia stood gaping at everything around them. With bare floorboards, mouldy walls, shabbily boarded-up windows and the general presence of filth, it was not a pretty sight.

But that was hardly surprising considering the house's past, and present occupants had only just discovered the room's existence.

Subconsciously, in her nervousness, Amelia took hold of Rory's hand.

"Silver thing, blue at the end. Where did it go?" The Doctor continued to ask from the corridor, really hoping they'd start listening soon.

"There's nothing in here," Rory called out to him, still not comprehending how this room could exist.

"Whatever's in there stopped you from seeing the room," The Doctor stated matter of factly.

"What makes you think you could see it?" He continued harshly, sending a shiver up Rory's spine.

"Now, please, just get out." The Doctor pleaded once more, sounding mildly exasperated.

In response, Rory took a few steps backwards, finally realising that coming in here may have been a not-so-good idea after all.

"Silver, blue at the end?" Amelia suddenly spoke up, stopping Rory in his tracks.

"My screwdriver, yes." The Doctor clarified.

"It's here." She confirmed, Rory's grip on her hand tightening when he saw it too.

"Must have rolled under the door." The Doctor assumed from the corridor.

"Yeah, must've." Amelia agreed with heavy scepticism.

"And then it must have jumped up on the table." She finished with a hint of fear.

And there, on the scratched up tabletop, the screwdriver sat. Practically welded to the thing with indiscernible gunk, it's casing covered in what could be teeth marks.

"Get out of there." The Doctor requested in a foreboding tone.

This was enough for Rory, already backpedalling towards the door, dragging Amelia along with him.

But she was having none of it, wriggling out of his grasp and dashing toward the table, pulling a confused-sounding gasp out of Rory.

"Get out of there! GET OUT!!" Came the Doctors distressed voice through the doorway.

Rory really wanted to do just that, but his protective nature dragged him over to Amelia as she plucked the sonic out of the gunk.

"Ugh...what is this stuff?" Amelia whispered to Rory, disgusted by the gunk, now not only coating the screwdriver but her hand as well.

"GET OUT OF THERE!!" The Doctor bellowed, fearing for their safety and endeavouring to see what was happening.

Finally, Amelia and Rory agreed that leaving would be the best option when they heard a slippery, slithering sound behind them. Rory felt a cold breath on the back of his neck, making his hairs stand on end.

Yet when they turned to look, there was nothing to be seen. But the pair knew something was there. They just knew it.

Instead of 'getting out of there', like they really should have been doing, they kept looking around, trying to get a glimpse of whatever was behind them, taunting them.

"What is it? What are you two doing?" The Doctor questioned, hearing their shuffling feet.

"There's nothing here, but..." Rory tried to explain as he continuingly attempted to see the thing.

"Corner of your eye." The Doctor reminded them.

"But what is it!?" Amelia demanded, becoming increasingly scared. Realising his mistake, the Doctor tried to backtrack.

"Don't try to look at it. If it knows you've seen it, it will kill you. Don't look at it. DO. NOT. LOOK." He warned them desperately.

At that exact moment, their attempts to see were fruitful. They turned, they looked and at last they saw. And what they saw, they did not like.

It was a grotesque, cylindrical beast hanging from the ceiling, looking like a snake but much bigger. It had translucent, uneven skin and beady, yellow eyes. It had at least six-dozen impossibly sharp, elongated teeth protruding from its abnormally large mouth, which was oozing the gunk that coated the sonic.

Amelia unleashed a blood-curdling scream upon finally seeing the thing, prompting Prisoner Zero to open it's already massive mouth and hiss right in her face.

"GET OUT!!" The Doctor bellowed once more.

Rory, finally listening, scooped up the still screaming Amelia under his arm and ran as fast as he could out the door.

~

Once they were back out in the corridor, Rory slammed the door shut behind them and headed for the stairs, but Amelia wouldn't abide it, coming to her wits and escaping his hold.

"No! We can't leave the Doctor!" She exclaimed, scrambling over to him and handing him his screwdriver that she'd kept a hold on this whole time.

"Thanks!" The Doctor expressed, hastily taking the sonic and pointing it at the only recently noticed door. Locking it.

"But-" Rory tried to argue, but a sudden thud on the door silenced him. His fear had him frozen in place, urging him to run as fast as he could from this madness and not look back. It was rational, really.

But he knew, deep down, he couldn't just leave them. No matter what that rational part of his brain was telling him, he couldn't leave her.

So pushing away his fear, he picked up the discarded cricket bat and ran back down the corridor. Standing protectively in front of the bat's last victim and Amelia.

"Come on. What's the bad alien done to you?" The Doctor complained, fiddling with the sonic to get it to work after it failed to unlock the handcuffs.

"Is that what it is? That thing, Prisoner Zero. Is it an alien?" Amelia asked, crouched to the right of the Doctor and clasping his arm in fear.

"Yes! Was that not obvious?" The Doctor replied, head whipping round to stare baffled at Amelia.

"What's that!? What's it doing??" Rory inquired when the edges of the door began to glow orange.

Leaning around Rory to get a better look, the Doctor continued to mess with the sonic.

"I don't know, getting dressed?" He offered up sarcastically.

"Run. Just go, I'll be fine." The Doctor requested as if only just noticing what Rory was doing.

"Already tried that. I'm not going without her, and she won't leave without you, and you're stuck. So we're staying." Rory stated, leaving no room for question, still holding up the bat, ready to attack.

Seeing he was going to get nowhere with him, the Doctor moved on to Amelia.

"Amelia, listen. Leave me, get to safety. I'll stop this thing and meet you outside." He tried to persuade her.

"No! I won't!" Amelia shouted stubbornly, wrapping her arms even further round the Doctor's.

"Ugh! HUMANS!" The Doctor lamented loudly, giving up convincing them to leave and focusing instead on getting his sonic to work.

"Wait!" Amelia gasped, looking at the Doctor in a new light.

"Are you an alien?" She inquired astonished.

The Doctor slowly looked back over at Amelia, slightly worried about her reaction if he answered the question truthfully.

But before he could say anything, the door was wrenched off its hinges and smashed to the floor.

Stepping on and over the fallen door, a middle-aged, balding man in a blue boilersuit walked into the corridor. He held a chain-link leash with a black Doberman at the other end.

"But it's just-!" Amelia began at the exact same time as Rory muttered: "But that's...".

"No, it's not. Look at the faces." The Doctor instructed, not noticing they'd said different things.

Doing as they were told, Rory and Amelia looked at the faces, and they saw what the Doctor was talking about. As Prisoner Zero alternated between looking at the three of them, the man and the dog's faces moved continuously in complete sync.

Just then, the man let out several angry barks as if he'd seen the postman out the window.

"It's all one creature. One creature disguised as two. Clever old multiform, a bit of a rush job, though. Got the voice a bit muddled, did you?" The Doctor grinned, finding that fact very amusing.

"Mind you, where did you get the pattern from? You'd need a psychic link, a live feed. How did you fix that?" He queried, switching from amused to curious, soliciting a growl out of the man.

"He's one of my patients, but he can't be because-" Rory began.

"-he's in hospital in a coma." Rory and the Doctor said together, prompting perplexed looks from both Rory and Amelia.

"Knew it." The Doctor quipped smugly.

He would have elaborated, but Prisoner Zero began moving forward as man and dog's faces alike opened their mouths impossibly wide, revealing a multitude of elongated teeth.

"WOAH! Stay, boy!" The Doctor teased as Rory tensed, getting ready to swing.

"You're sure it's not really him. It's this 'Prisoner Zero'?" Rory asked tersely, needing certainty.

"Absolutely." The Doctor assured.

Rory moved forward, prepared to give what looked like one of his coma patients a good whack with a cricket bat but almost fell over when a deafening voice boomed through the air.

"Attention, Prisoner Zero. The human residence is surrounded. Attention, Prisoner Zero. The human residence is surrounded." A disembodied, deep baritone voice announced.

"What is that now!?" Rory panicked, staggering back in front of the other two and glancing at the ceiling.

"It sounds like the voice from my bedroom wall," Amelia observed, wincing from the voice's volume.

"That's exactly right, Amelia! Ya hear that, big guy? An old friend of yours has come to visit!" The Doctor taunted, seeming awfully cheery for someone face-to-face with a deadly alien whilst chained to a radiator.

"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence, or the human residence will be incinerated." The voice spoke again.

"An old friend who just so happens to have a penchant for incineration, perfect!" The Doctor sniped, mood souring instantly.

Luckily, instead of continuing down the landing towards the group, Prisoner Zero decided to walk into a room halfway down the corridor to go scowl out the window at its old guard.

The Doctor took this opportunity to try and fix the sonic once more. He did this by bashing it against the floor and quietly begging it to work.

And suddenly, it did.

The end lit up, the Doctor stopped smashing it and pointed it at the handcuffs. And finally, FINALLY, they pinged open. Releasing the Doctor's hand.

"Aha!" The Doctor cheered, jumping to his feet behind Rory.

"Come on. Run!" He commanded, clasping Amelia's hand and shoving Rory forwards as they ran for the stairs.

The trio made it quickly down to the lower floor, and soon they were out the back door.

~~~~~

As soon as they were all outside, the Doctor attempted to lock the back door with his barely-working screwdriver. He wasn't entirely sure what the multiform had done to the sonic, but whatever it had done, it wasn't good. Prisoner Zero scowled down at them from the upstairs window with two different faces.

"So?" Amelia asked innocently.

"So what?" The Doctor asked right back, setting off down the garden once the back door finally locked.

"So? Are you an alien?" She reiterated, following him toward the TARDIS.

"Now? You're asking me this now??" He questioned with an incredulous look.

"Well, you didn't answer me before." Amelia pouted, crossing her arms.

"Err...what is that?" Rory inquired, pointing at the TARDIS. Having only just noticed the blue box in his back garden.

"It's a Time Machine," Amelia answered him with excitement in her eyes as the Doctor tried to open the TARDIS door.

"Of course! Of course, it is!" Rory huffed, turning away from them only to see his coma patient snarling at him from his bedroom window.

"Okay, will someone please tell me what the hell is going on!?" He clamoured, spinning back towards the pair.

But getting no response, the Doctor still fiddling with the box and Amelia just staring at him. He grabbed the Doctor by the shoulder and spun him so they were facing each other.

"Tell me now!!" Rory demanded, looking hysterical.

"An alien convict is hiding in your spare room disguised as a man and a dog, and some other aliens are about to incinerate your house. Any questions?" The Doctor snarked, looking a tad indignant as he turned back toward the TARDIS.

"Um, YES!" Rory exclaimed, exasperated.

"Yeah, me too." The Doctor muttered, finally getting his TARDIS key in the lock only to find it wouldn't open.

"No, no, no, no! Don't do that, not now!" He cried, trying to force the door open.

"What? Why won't it open?" Amelia questioned, giving the TARDIS door a little shove herself.

"She's still rebuilding. Not letting us in." The Doctor quietly explained, pressing his face against the doors and stroking the 'Pull to open' sign mournfully.

"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence, or the human residence will be incinerated." The voice repeated overhead.

"Come on!" Rory commanded, dropping the cricket bat and grabbing the Doctor's and Amelia's hands and trying to drag them around to the front of the house, deciding running away was better than standing around and being incinerated or eaten.

"No, wait, hang on. Wait, wait, wait, wait!" The Doctor insisted, wriggling out of Rory's grasp and running past the TARDIS and further into the garden. Amelia followed suit and dashed after him, which was fast becoming a common occurrence, much to Rory's chagrin.

"The shed. I destroyed the shed last time I was here. Smashed it to pieces." The Doctor pointed out, placing a hand on the fully formed, wooden shed a few metres from the TARDIS.

"Maybe Auntie Sharon bought a new one; she does like buying new things." Amelia supplied, trying to be helpful.

"Yeah, that. Now let's go!" Rory urged, just wanting to leave.

"Yeah, but the new one's got old. It's ten years old at least." The Doctor elaborated, wiping his finger on the shed then licking it to get a more accurate reading.

"Twelve years. We're not six months late. We're twelve years late." He announced, with a look of shock.

"WHAT." Amelia nearly choked, going extremely pale.

"It's coming," Rory warned, noticing Prisoner Zero was now missing from his bedroom window.

"TWELVE YEARS!?" Amelia practically screeched.

"You said six months. Why did you say six months??" The Doctor asked Rory with an accusatory tone.

"WHY DID YOU SAY FIVE MINUTES!?" Amelia screamed at the Doctor, now quite red in the face with tears pricking the corners of her eyes.

The Doctor stayed silent with a guilt-stricken look on his face.

"TAKE ME BACK!! TAKE ME BACK RIGHT NOW!!" Amelia demanded, tears beginning to trickle down her face.

"I can't..." The Doctor uttered solemnly.

"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence, or the human residence will be incinerated." The voice repeated once again.

"We don't have time for this," Rory whined, agitated.

"'DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS'!? WHERES MY AUNTIE, YOU LIAR!?" Amelia snarled, turning on Rory.

"I am not a liar!" Rory defended, seeming angry as well, nowhere near as enraged as Amelia but angry all the same.

"THEN WHY DID YOU SAY SIX MONTHS!?" Amelia yelled, trying to get in Rory's face.

"Why did you leave me after you promised you'd stay!?" Rory yelled right back.

Amelia stepped back, her anger draining as shock filled her face. She didn't make promises; in her experience, people who made promises never intended to keep them. But she had made one once, one she was determined to keep. The only person she'd ever promised anything to, the only person who cared enough to ask for her word, was a shy boy at her school. He was two centimetres shorter than her and had floppy blonde hair that was always in his eyes.

That was not the person in front of her, but now she was stood there looking at him, really looking, there was no doubt.

And evidently, even she couldn't keep her promises.

"What." She almost whispered, more of a proclamation of shock than a question.

"What?" The Doctor asked, which was definitely a question, snapping out of his sadness and falling straight into confusion.

"Come on!" Rory ordered, once again grabbing their hands and dragging them through the garden. Thankfully, this time, they complied.

They dashed past the still smoking TARDIS and Prisoner Zero, who had smashed the back door open and was now barking at them from the doorstep. They ran around the side of the house, barreling down the front path and off towards town.


	2. Chapter 2

The three of them ran down the peaceful country lane as if their lives depended on it, which not-so-coincidentally they did.

They would have kept going had Amelia not skidded to a stop, red-faced and out of breath.

"Rory. Rory Williams. You're Rory?" She gasped out in between deep breaths.

"Yes, that's his name. Says so on his ID." The Doctor affirmed.

"Why? Is that important?" He questioned, searching Amelia's face for clues.

"He's my friend from school, my best friend." Amelia clarified, rubbing her hand against her side where a stitch had formed.

"I was your best friend until you disappeared." Rory harshly corrected, walking off towards the village.

"It's not my fault!! He kidnapped me!" Amelia cried, pointing an accusatory finger at the Doctor.

"'Kidnap'!? I did no such thing. You asked to come with me!" The Doctor asserted highly insulted.

"Yes, but I didn't know all this scary and confusing stuff was going to happen. I thought it would be fun!" Amelia complained, glaring up at the Doctor.

"Well, these are the risks you take when you step or, in your case, jump/fall inside a Time Machine. I tried to warn you it wouldn't be safe." The Doctor lectured her, recounting their recent history.

"Well, maybe you should have tried harder." Amelia practically whimpered, face crumpling as tears began falling down her face once again.

The Doctor just stood there, guilt coming back to him at full force, realising he probably shouldn't be reprimanding the little girl he'd uprooted and whisked away through time to a place where everyone she'd ever known had grown up and moved on.

He crouched down, getting on her level and placed his hands on her shoulders.

"Amelia, listen, I'm sorry. I didn't mean for this to happen. I didn't want any of this." The Doctor apologised with a sigh.

"Then, just...take me back...please?" Amelia sniffled, rubbing at her eyes fiercely, trying to stop the tears.

"I already told you, I can't." The Doctor uttered quietly, looking away sadly.

"But why??" Amelia wailed, grabbing on to his sleeve and jostling it for emphasis.

"Because it would cause a paradox, Amelia." The Doctor explained calmly, wiping away her tears with his thumb.

"A...a what?" Amelia stuttered, looking at the Doctor with wide, teary eyes.

"A paradox is...err...a paradox is...ugh how do I explain this in a way you'll understand?" The Doctor complained, mostly to himself.

"Oh! I know!" He chirped, rummaging through his pocket, quickly finding what he was looking for.

"Take this apple, for example." The Doctor offered, holding out the shiny, red fruit.

"Is that the apple I gave you?" Amelia interjected.

"Err...yes, yes it is." The Doctor confirmed, spinning the apple in his hand so she could see the smiley face she'd carved there earlier.

"Now, so say I wanted this apple to never have existed, so I travel back in time and cut the branch off its tree before it can grow so it never exists, but if it never existed, how would I have known to go back and stop it in the first place?" The Doctor asked with a pleading face, really hoping what he'd said made some sort of sense.

"You...you wouldn't have known, so then you wouldn't have gone back, but then...then the apple would have existed because you never went back and...um," Amelia mumbled, looking really confused.

"Exactly! That's basically a temporal paradox. They're impossible, and they essentially stop themselves from happening." The Doctor agreed.

"But, although they are a very fascinating subject to think about, they can have disastrous consequences if attempted, so do you understand why I can't take you back?" The Doctor inquired nervously, really not wanting to set her off crying again.

"Um...I think so...?" Amelia stated unsurely as more of a question than anything else.

"No, no, you don't. I can tell. Let me just think of another way to explain it." The Doctor sighed, shoving the apple back in his pocket and feeling like an idiot.

"No, really! I do kinda get it. If you take me back, I'll never have been missing, but if I was never missing, you wouldn't know to take me back in the first place...or something." Amelia mumbled sadly and still a tad confused.

"YES! Yes! That, well, kind of. And besides, if we did try these massive flying things, called Reapers, would turn up and start eating people." The Doctor agreed a little too cheerfully for what he'd said, prompting Amelia to give him a mildly wary look.

"But I need you to know I really am sorry this has happened. I don't know what I was thinking. Then again, I don't know a lot of things right now. I don't even know who I am. I'm brand new. I could be anybody. But I do know one thing, I don't want to be the person that makes you cry." He uttered in earnest, sounding somewhat dejected.

Amelia stared at the Doctor for a moment, then lifted up her arms and wrapped them around his neck in a hug. In response, the Doctor gave out a small, surprised 'Oh!', then slowly but surely he wrapped his arms around her too.

"It's okay, Doctor," Amelia said quietly, smoothing down the hair on the back of his head.

"No, it's not." The Doctor murmured back.

"I know," Amelia replied quickly, stopping her ministrations.

They just stood there like that for a few minutes, the silence only being broken when Amelia decided to ask a question that had been niggling in the back of her mind.

"What do you mean when you say you're 'brand new'?" She asked, pulling away from the hug but leaving her hands on the Doctor's shoulders, whilst the Doctor's just fell to rest on his knees.

"Ah! Another tricky question but not as important this time. I'll explain later after this Prisoner Zero thing is sorted out, alright?" The Doctor assured, jumping to his feet.

"Do you promise?" Amelia questioned, gently extending an olive branch in their unsteady friendship.

"Course!" The Doctor agreed almost gleefully.

"But speaking of Prisoner Zero, one of the pieces to solving this problem has been walking further and further away from us the entire time we've been talking. So if you don't mind, we're going to run after him now, before he disappears from sight entirely." He continued, smiling down at Amelia whilst outstretching his hand for her to take. Which she did with minimal hesitation.

And with that, they continued running down the lane. Only this time, they were chasing after Rory as well as running away from the threat of danger.

~

"Oi! Nurse-boy! Tell me more about this patient of yours!" The Doctor yelled after Rory once they got close.

"Just leave me alone," Rory grumbled over his shoulder as he continued to walk away.

As they finally reached him, the Doctor let go of Amelia's hand and rammed his hands down on Rory's shoulders, spinning him around.

"Nope, sorry. You know too much." The Doctor explained with a serious look.

"What? So you're gonna kill me?" Rory queried, trying to step back and looking nervous again.

"What!? No! I'm going to ask you questions so I can know that stuff too." The Doctor announced, looking mildly confused.

"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence, or the human residence will be incinerated. Repeat." The voice started again, but this time not from the sky; instead, it came from a nearby ice-cream van.

All three of them looked on in confusion and dismay.

"Please tell me you can hear that ice-cream van's threats of violence as well." Rory pleaded with the two of them.

"Yes. Yes, we can." The Doctor affirmed absently before dashing off to investigate, quickly followed by Amelia, and reluctantly followed by Rory after a moment.

"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence, or the human residence will be incinerated. Repeat." The voice went on, coming out of the ice-cream van's speakers.

"What's that? Why are you playing that?" The Doctor demanded, looking mildly affronted.

"It's supposed to be 'Claire de lune'." The ice-cream man admitted, looking just as affronted as the Doctor.

The Doctor, realising this man was as annoyingly clueless about this as he was, picked up the ice-cream man's radio. Turning it on and pressing the speaker to his ear.

The voice was coming out of that too.

"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence, or the human residence will be incinerated. Repeat." The voice reiterated, this time coming out of a jogger's iPod, she'd stopped jogging when her music stopped playing, being replaced with the voice.

"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence, or the human residence will be incinerated. Repeat." The voice continued, now coming from a middle-aged woman's cellphone.

This is bad. This could be very, very bad. If this all means what the Doctor thinks it means, this whole situation could be much more dire than he'd initially thought. But before he jumped to any conclusions, he needed more research, more evidence.

"Doctor, what's going on?" Amelia asked, confused by the fact that the voice from her bedroom wall was now coming from everywhere. But the Doctor was already dashing off, jumping over someone's hedge and running up their garden path.

"Also, what's that tiny blue thing that jogger woman's holding?" Amelia continued directing her questions at Rory instead as she walked in the direction the Doctor had gone.

"Oh, um, that's an iPod," Rory answered, shuffling along behind her.

"What's an iPod?" Amelia inquired, Rory's answer just raising more questions in her mind.

~~~~~

The Doctor burst through the front door of the random house he'd chosen to conduct his research in. Skidding on the doormat and almost falling over in his haste.

"Hello! Sorry to barge in. We're doing a special on television faults in this area. My associates will probably be here in a moment. Now let's have a look." He announced to the old lady whose house he'd technically just broken into.

She was sat on her antimacassar-covered sofa flicking through the channels on her TV, all of which starred the massive eye-ball from Amelia's bedroom wall. It was still ranting about Prisoner Zero.

"Oh, good. I was just about to phone; it's on every channel." The old lady explained, handing the Doctor the remote as he sat down next to her.

Just then, Amelia and Rory entered through the still wide open front door and walked into the front room.

"Oh, hello, Rory, dear. Are you a Nurse now?" The old lady wondered happily.

"Yes, Mrs Angelo, I have been for a few years now. But I might not be for much longer with how things have been going recently." Rory answered moodily, trying to sound as nice as possible.

"Rory, are these your new friends?" Mrs Angelo asked cheerily, getting up from her sofa.

"No, not really," Rory grumbled, attempting to be polite.

"Speaking of which, 'Doctor', Do you make a habit of breaking and entering people's homes?" He shot snidely at the Doctor.

"No." The Doctor spat back, also getting up from the sofa and muting the TV. Almost wishing some of his 'associates' had stayed outside.

"You seem to have a knack for asking stupid questions, though. Tell me, Rory, do you remember the rules?" The Doctor glowered at Rory.

"What rules?" Rory questioned, hoping he'd stop feeling so confused at some point today.

"There you go again!" The Doctor accused, throwing his arms up in exasperation.

"Doctor, Rory wasn't there when you made the rules." Amelia pointed out, wondering if it would be rude to sit down when they weren't even supposed to be in here.

"Oh. No, you weren't, were you? Alright, I'll let you off the hook but remind me to give you the rundown later." The Doctor absolved, turning around and picking up Mrs Angelo's radio.

Rory gave the Doctor a look like he was the biggest idiot he'd ever met, but it was much better than the look Mrs Angelo was giving Amelia.

"I know you, don't I, dearie? I've seen you somewhere before." Mrs Angelo told Amelia after a long bout of staring, trying to place who she was.

"Um..." Amelia uttered, stuck between a rock and a hard place. She didn't want to lie about who she was and knew that telling the truth would spell trouble and possible police involvement, seeing as she was probably considered a missing person. Which isn't at all conducive to saving Leadworth from criminal aliens and apparent incineration.

"So, what's your name, dear?" Mrs Angelo inquired after Amelia didn't say anything.

"Sorry! She's just a bit shy!" Rory excused loudly, partially jumping in front of Amelia, trying to inconspicuously block her from Mrs Angelo's view. Only just realising that people are probably going to recognise the girl whose face had been plastered around town for years. On Missing Child posters.

"This is...um." Rory stuttered, struggling for inspiration and glancing down at Amelia's worried face.

"This is Amy, Amy Williams? Yeah, and she's my...um, Cousin? Yes, she's my Cousin and just visiting for Easter weekend!" Rory lied, looking very proud of his quick thinking.

"Oh, so have you visited Leadworth before, Amy, dear?" Mrs Angelo continued to interrogate, just knowing she'd seen this girl somewhere before.

"Yes," Amelia answered at the exact same time as Rory shouted 'No!'. They glanced at each other, knowing they might just have royally screwed up.

"So, which is it?" Mrs Angelo asked with a tinge of confusion.

"Oh, right! Sorry, Amel- AMY! I forgot about um...that. It was two-ish years ago now, wasn't it? At Christmas?" Rory stumbled through his falsities in an abnormally loud voice, prompting Amelia to agree.

"Right, yeah. It was great and also definitely happened." Amelia nodded with a nervous grin.

"Ahh, right. That must be where I remember you from, dearie." Mrs Angelo complied, but something in the back of her mind told her it really wasn't.

After a few moments of awkward silence, Mrs Angelo stepped back, so she was facing the Doctor as well, who was currently hunched over her radio.

"And, are you visiting with Amy, erm...Doctor, was it?" She pondered, just trying to make conversation.

"Who's Amy?" The Doctor questioned, turning to face the room, radio still in hand. He was met with varying facial expressions, ranging from perplexed to a downright death glare.

"I'm Amy, remember Doctor?" Amelia prompted, giving him a face that told him to just agree and move on.

"Right...of course, yes, Amy. Sure, anyway." The Doctor conceded, feeling as though he'd missed something but quickly changed the subject.

"Okay, so as you can see or...well, hear." The Doctor presented, holding up the radio for all to see then pointing his sonic at it. The machine flickered through all the stations in all different languages. All of which were filled with the voice.

"Repetez-. Le Prisonnier-. Zero wird der menschliche Wohnsitz räumen-." The voice quickly spat from the radio before the Doctor shut it off and put it down.

"It's everywhere, in every language. They're broadcasting to the whole world." He concluded, dashing to the window, opening it and sticking his head out to look up at the sky.

"Who's broadcasting? What are you looking for?" Rory scrutinised, wishing this ridiculous man would at least try to make sense.

But regardless, the three of them followed the Doctor across the room in intrigue. Amelia even stuck her head out the window after the Doctor came back in, trying to see what he was looking at.

"Okay. Planet this size, two poles, your basic molten core? They're going to need an eighty percent fission blast." The Doctor went on, ignoring Rory's hundredth stupid question and acting as if even one of the people in front of him would know what he was babbling about.

As this was happening, a young man walked in through the still wide-open front door. Seeing the odd group, the young man stepped into the front room with a bewildered look on his face. And the Doctor, noticing his sudden appearance, started directing his calculations at him.

"But they'll have to power up first, won't they? So assuming a medium-sized starship, that's forty minutes. What do you think, forty minutes? Yeah, forty minutes. We've got forty minutes." The Doctor continued right in the young man's face whilst bobbing up and down.

"Forty minutes to what?" Rory queried, trying to tolerate the Doctor's nonsense just so they could hurry up and leave, not wanting to stick around now Jeff had shown up.

"Gran, who's this?" Jeff questioned, pointing at the Doctor with one hand and pulling off his laptop bag with the other.

"This is the Doctor. He's here to fix my TV." Mrs Angelo introduced cheerfully, prompting the Doctor to give Jeff a happy little wave.

"Oh, cool. I didn't even know it was broken. Hey, Rory." Jeff smirked in Rory's direction.

"Hello, Jeff." Rory ground out between clenched teeth.

Jeff began to chuckle at Rory's antics, but all the mirth left his person when he glanced down and saw Amelia, who was no longer hanging out the window.

"Holy shit." He gasped out in shock.

"JEFF! Language!" Mrs Angelo chastised with an aggravated look.

"Sorry, Gran. It's just she doesn't half look like...I mean, she couldn't be, too young obviously. But she doesn't half look like Amelia Pond." Jeff elaborated, looking dumbfounded.

Mrs Angelo let out a very loud gasp, followed by her hand coming up to cover her mouth as she gave Amelia a look of surprised recognition. Amelia, in turn, attempted to hide behind Rory, severely not liking the sudden turn of events.

"I knew I knew you from somewhere! She's the spitting image! Oh, Amelia Pond, that poor girl. Just disappearing like that, it's just dreadful. You two were quite close, if I remember correctly, weren't you, Rory?" Mrs Angelo exclaimed sadly.

"Yes, we were." Rory sighed just as sadly, if not more. He seemed quite deflated compared to his previously sarcastic self, looking away in dismay. Amelia grabbed his hand from where she stood behind him in a gesture of attempted comfort.

The Doctor, noticing how uncomfortable both his 'associates' had become in the current situation, endeavoured to set things back on track.

"Well, she's not Amelia. She's Amy, right, Rory?" The Doctor prompted, suddenly comprehending the previous topic of conversation and understanding why it was needed. People don't usually take time travel as an excuse very seriously, accidental or not.

"Err...yes, that's right. Amy, Amy Williams, she's my Cousin." Rory quietly lied once again, glancing up at the Doctor.

"Well, obviously, she's not Amelia. She's too young to be like I said." Jeff reiterated obnoxiously.

"Shut up, Jeff." Rory snarked, pulled slightly out of his sudden funk by the Doctor's intervention and Jeff's stupid voice. Bringing him back to the matter at hand.

"Forty minutes to what?" Rory reasked the Doctor, really wanting to get out of here now.

The Doctor walked away from the group, sitting back down on the sofa and facing the TV, which still had the eye-ball swirling around the screen. He unmuted it.

"-the human residence will be incinerated. Repeat." The voice announced, suddenly coming out of the TV speakers.

"The human residence. They're not talking about your house; they're talking about the planet. Somewhere up there, there's a spaceship, and it's going to incinerate the planet." The Doctor uttered in a severe tone.

"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence, or the human residence will be incinerated. Repeat." The voice kept going.

"Forty minutes to the end of the world." The Doctor stated forebodingly, finally answering Rory's question.

The four other people in the room wore differing levels of worried looks at the Doctor's latest revelation.

~~~~~

"What is this place? Where am I?" The Doctor demanded, marching agitatedly down the main road.

They'd left Mrs Angelo's house swiftly after the Doctor's declaration of impending doom.

"Leadworth." Amelia supplied helpfully. She and Rory were still holding hands and only just keeping up with the Doctor's pace.

"Where's the rest of it?" The Doctor enquired moodily, not slowing down in the slightest.

"This is it." Rory deadpanned, really beginning to find the Doctor quite infuriating.

"Is there an airport?" The Doctor continued, trying to figure out what he had at his disposal.

"No." Rory denied.

"A nuclear power station?" The Doctor proposed, even though he knew what the answer would probably be.

"Nope." Rory dismissed with an eye-roll.

"Not even just a little one?" The Doctor asked, grasping at straws. Turning to face the pair and walking backwards for a few seconds.

"No." Rory reiterated, giving the Doctor a stern look.

"Nearest city?" The Doctor questioned, turning back around to keep marching forward.

"Gloucester!" Amelia piped up, finally knowing the answer to a question.

"Yeah, it's an hour by car," Rory added, giving Amelia's hand an affectionate squeeze.

"We don't have an hour." The Doctor grumbled, mostly to himself.

"Do we have a car?" He queried at a louder volume.

"No, not unless you wanna steal one, but with all the breaking and entering you do, stealing a car seems right up your alley." Rory sniped, almost walking into the Doctor when he abruptly stopped marching.

The Doctor slowly turned to give Rory the most disdainful look he could muster.

"Thirty-six minutes, Rory Williams. Thirty-six minutes to save the world, and what have I got to work with? A post office, and it's shut. But you just keep up the sarcastic remarks, go on. I'm sure that'll stop the planet from blowing up." The Doctor snapped darkly.

Rory didn't reply, staying silent. Deciding instead to just glower back at the Doctor.

"Is this pond new?" Amelia inquired from a short distance away.

Rory and the Doctor's heads whipped round to find Amelia stood a few metres away next to a small pond. Rory hadn't even noticed she'd let go of his hand.

As the two of them sauntered over to stand next to her, Rory answered her.

"Yeah, it's a duck pond. The council installed it six or seven years ago, in 2002, I think. It was meant to spruce up the place a bit." He confirmed, mildly wincing at the sorry state of it.

"Why aren't there any ducks?" The Doctor wondered, sounding a tad disappointed.

"I don't know. There's never any ducks." Rory responded, giving the Doctor a look that screamed, 'do you ever shut up?'. Not that the Doctor noticed.

"Then how do you know it's a duck pond?" Amelia asked innocently, peering at Rory.

"Good question." The Doctor smiled down at her, then they both looked expectantly at Rory for his answer.

"It just is." Rory shrugged, not knowing what to tell them but convinced they were tag-teaming to see who could aggravate him to death the fastest.

Just then, the Doctor's whole body seized up. He clutched at his chest and collapsed beside the duck pond.

"Doctor!" Amelia cried, worried for her friend as she quickly crouched beside him.

Although she wasn't as fast as Rory, forgetting how annoying the Doctor was, he jumped straight into Nurse mode. Kneeling next to the Doctor and taking the hand that wasn't clutching at his chest, he checked his pulse. Then he put his other hand on the Doctor's forehead to check his temperature, simultaneously brushing the Doctor's fringe out of the way.

"Doctor, you're burning up. Why didn't you say anything??" Rory questioned in a concerned tone.

The Doctor didn't respond, stunned into silence. Taken aback by the sudden show of care, or perhaps it was the fact that everything seemed to be fizzing.

"Can you breath alright? Are you feeling any pain? Is the pain just in your chest, or is it in other places, like your arms or your jaw?" Rory quick-fired, trying to assess what he was dealing with while still attempting to find a pulse.

"Rory-" The Doctor began, trying to brush Rory off.

"I'm sorry, but am I getting two pulses?" Rory queried once he found the Doctor's rather unusual heartbeat.

At that, the Doctor quickly pulled his wrist away from Rory.

"Rory! I'm fine!" The Doctor squawked indignantly.

"'Fine'? You just fell to the floor in pain!" Rory insisted at the Doctor's apparent refusal.

"Yes, well, I'm not having a heart attack or any other Human aliments like that!" The Doctor insisted right back.

The odd use of the word 'Human' made Amelia squint suspiciously, not to mention that he apparently had two pulses.

"Well, whatever's happening, I'm a Nurse. I can help, Doctor." Rory tried to reassure in a gentler tone.

"No, you can't. Not with this." The Doctor declared, sitting up straighter and rubbing at his chest.

"It's just too soon. I'm not ready. I'm not done yet." He continued, sounding equally pitiful and frustrated.

Rory would have asked what the hell any of that utter nonsense meant, but at that very moment, the sky went dark.

"What's happening? Why's it going dark!?" Amelia yelped, grabbing at the Doctor's arm in fear.

And just as quickly as it had gone dark, it became bright again, only now the Sun was dark orange, and it didn't hurt your eyes when you looked at it.

"Okay, so, what's wrong with the Sun?" Rory inquired, sounding bored, getting pretty used to this crap by this point.

"Nothing. You're looking at it through a forcefield. They've sealed off your upper atmosphere, now they're getting ready to boil the planet." The Doctor explained, seeming unfazed. Amelia's grip got slightly tighter around the Doctor's arm.

"Oh, and here they come. The human race. The end comes, as it was always going to, down a video phone." The Doctor complained, looking at the people milling about on the field over the other side of the duck pond; every one of them filmed the sky.

"What's a video phone?" Amelia wondered, feeling like she may have heard the term somewhere before.

"It's a telephone that you can film stuff with." The Doctor replied, getting up off the floor and helping Amelia up too.

"Why would anyone want that?" Amelia asked, looking very unimpressed as she dusted off her nighty.

"I don't know, to do that probably." The Doctor stated, unsure, gesturing towards the dozens of people using their video phones to take pictures of the Sun.

"This isn't real, is it? This is some kind of big windup." Rory uttered without any emotion in his voice. He had also gotten back up on his feet.

"No, why would we wind you up?" The Doctor quizzed with a slight head tilt as he and Amelia turned to face Rory.

"Because either this is a windup or I've finally, completely, lost my mind," Rory complained in a shrill tone.

"Well, it's not a windup, and you're not mad. This is real. This is happening, and it's serious." The Doctor assured, looking back over the field, but this time he noticed a middle-aged, balding man in a blue boilersuit. He had a black Doberman at the end of a chainlink leash, he was stood at the furthest corner of the field, and he was scowling at the Sun. Prisoner Zero, without a doubt.

"Aha! Coma patients! Nurse Rory and his coma patients!" The Doctor cheered, remembering one of the reasons he was tolerating Rory's rather irritating presence. The group got a few stares for that one. Amelia got the feeling that her newest friend had minimal social aptitude.

"Thirty-two minutes. I can do it. Thirty-two minutes, the planet burns. Run to your loved ones and say goodbye, or stay and help me." The Doctor proposed, feeling very secure in the fact they'd say 'yes'.

"I'll help!" Amelia agreed happily, throwing a smile up at the Doctor and receiving a grateful smile right back. It's not like she had anywhere else to be or could even go.

The pair looked back up at Rory, still awaiting his answer. He did not look happy.

"No." He muttered lowly.

"I'm sorry?" The Doctor choked out, blindsided and a tad insulted.

"NO!" Rory bellowed in the Doctor's face, looking angrier than he had all-day.

Rory suddenly grabbed the Doctor's dishevelled tie and yanked him away from the duck pond by it.

"Rory!! Stop! What are you doing!?" The Doctor shrilled at a slightly higher octave than usual, trying and failing to pull away from Rory's vice-like grip.

Amelia, unsure of what was happening, just skittered along behind the odd pair. Not really knowing how to react when your oldest friend drags your newest friend around by his tie.

~

A car parked up several yards in front of the group, and an old man clambered out. As the old man turned around to shut his car door, Rory stormed over with the Doctor still in tow.

Holding the Doctor's tie in the way, Rory slammed the car door shut on it. Then, quickly, before the Doctor could even try to escape, Rory took the old man's car keys. Locking the door with a push of a button. Trapping the Doctor where he stood.

"Why on earth did you do that!?" The Doctor demanded, completely floored by the contradictory nature of this man's actions from moment to moment.

"So I can finally get a proper answer out of you! Without you spouting nonsense or running off or...or another alien dropping out of the sky!! Tell me who you are!!" Rory answered, distraught.

"You know who I am?? I'm the Doctor, I told you!" The Doctor reminded him in earnest, searching Rory's face for any hint of why he was doing this.

"Oh, yes! The Doctor, the time traveller. As if I'm gonna believe that!!" Rory mocked with cynicism.

"Erm, Rory? I am going to need my car back." The old man interjected.

"I know, Mr Henderson. But you don't need it right now, do you? I do." Rory pointed out harshly.

"Alright, well, when you're done, I'll just be sitting over there, okay?" Mr Henderson told him with a nervous smile, then he went off to wait on a nearby bench.

"Rory?" Amelia asked quietly, placing a hand on his arm. He looked down at her, still quite tense and straining to reign in his anger.

"He really is a time traveller." She stated truthfully with a hint of concern.

"I can't believe that." Rory hissed through gritted teeth, looking away from her.

"What do you mean you can't believe it!? Your childhood best friend is standing right in front of you, completely unaged after twelve years. That seems like pretty convincing evidence to me!!" The Doctor wailed, infuriated that neither of them seemed to be taking the situation seriously. Usually, a statement like 'Forty minutes to the end of the world' was met with a certain amount of urgency.

"Well, I can't believe it. I just can't!" Rory insisted stubbornly.

"Why not??" The Doctor squawked at a loss as to what his reasoning could possibly be.

"BECAUSE SHE WAS DEAD!!" Rory screamed, trembling where he stood and stunning the other two into silence.

"She disappeared without a trace and was presumed dead. I mourned her; I'm still mourning. I attended her funeral, my best friend's funeral. I WAS EIGHT!! Eight years old. Do you have any idea what that kind of thing does to a person? Any idea how much therapy I had to go through? How many times I've thought I'd seen her out and about only to realise I was seeing things? I cried myself to sleep for years! I'm on six different types of medication! And you're trying to tell me, after all of that, after everything I went through, it was just an accident. A small slip up because you let her into your time machine for fun. I'm sorry, but I can't believe that. I can't, because if I do...if I do that...that means...it means..." Rory ranted, just letting it all out, his words slowly becoming quieter and quieter until they were indiscernible. And that's when he broke down sobbing.

His back hit the car as he slumped to the floor near the Doctor's feet. Unrelenting tears rolled down his cheeks as he tried to cover up his face with his hands.

The Doctor stood there, plastered against the car, in absolute shock at what he'd just witnessed. No one had ever reacted that badly to one of his mistakes, not even Jackie Tyler. Well, at least Rory hadn't hit him. Yet.

"I'm sorry, Rory." Amelia whimpered, pulling the Doctor out of his momentary stupor. Silent tears streaming down her face as she gripped the fabric of her nightie in distress. Making no move toward Rory, not even sure that he'd want comfort from her right now.

The Doctor was not equipped to deal with this many crying Humans on a good day. He really wasn't prepared to deal with them now. Not now, halfway through his regeneration with the threat of the Earth burning as the backdrop. But he hated seeing people cry, and Rory wasn't going to be any help like this. So he'd have to do something, and fast, time was running out.

Giving his burnt, dishevelled tie a quick glance, it was relatively easy to tell that it was beyond salvaging. And so it was not worth the time he would waste letting it keep him trapped. It wasn't like he needed it anyway; he had hundreds of ties to choose from back on the TARDIS. If ties were even still his thing at the end of all this. And if he even survived long enough to get back to the TARDIS.

With that decided, he took hold of the tattered tie, and with one swift yank, he tore it from his neck. Not wasting another second before sliding down the side of the car and plonking himself next to Rory.

He then outstretched his arm, trying to supply Amelia with some comfort first, seeing as she was the younger of the two. Amelia accepted his offer wholeheartedly, collapsing into a sitting position next to him. She grappled her arms around his middle and cried into his shoulder. He rubbed his hand up and down her back in response.

"Rory..." The Doctor started, not really knowing where to begin and getting zero reaction anyway.

"Rory, I'm really very sorry for-" He tried again.

"You ruined me, Doctor." Rory suddenly stuttered out with a shaky breath, making the Doctor pause.

"If I'm to believe what you're saying, then you ruined my life." He continued in a mildly stronger voice.

"And honestly, I don't think 'sorry' is gonna cut it." Rory finished with a sniffle.

The Doctor closed his eyes with a sigh. The back of his head hitting the car as he tried to think of what to say.

"Rory, listen. I know what you went through must have been terrible, and I know my apologies meaning nothing to you right now, but that doesn't change the fact that I am sorry." The Doctor assured earnestly, looking intensely at Rory.

"And in the future, I will try to make it up to you, both of you. I could take you anywhere to see or do anything you can imagine." He offered glamorously, glancing between the two.

"I just want you to leave me alone," Rory mumbled grumpily into his hands as Amelia continued sniffling.

"If that's what you want, that's what I'll do. You'll never have to see me again. But not yet, I can't go yet." The Doctor stated congenially.

"Why?" Rory demanded, finally removing his hands and looking at the Doctor. His eyes bloodshot, and his face wet with tears.

"Because you're not mad, Rory. This is real. Amelia and I are real. What's happening in the sky is real. And I need your help; otherwise, this whole planet, everything you've ever known, is over." The Doctor explained, not breaking eye contact with Rory.

"Why me?" Rory griped quietly.

"Because you and Amelia are right smack bang in the middle of it all. Prisoner Zero escaped through the crack in your wall, Amelia. It lived in your twos house, and now it's disguising its self as one of your patients, Rory. Like I said before, 'you know too much', so tell me what you know." The Doctor listed off, hoping Rory would listen.

"But how can I believe you?" Rory questioned, looking reluctant.

"You don't have to believe me, just help me. For twenty-nine minutes, Rory. Just help me for twenty-nine minutes, please." The Doctor pleaded, mentally urging him to say yes.

Rory remained silent, finally breaking eye contact.

"If you won't do it for me, that's fine. Do it for her." The Doctor requested, manoeuvring Amelia closer to Rory.

"Do it for her because right now, she's just as confused and scared as you are, and she is your best friend, Rory. Like you said, she disappeared, you thought she was dead, but now she's back. Not many people get a second chance like this. Are you really gonna waste it?" He persuaded with a small, knowing smile.

Rory and Amelia looked at each other with teary eyes.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean for this to happen. I really didn't." Amelia sniffled pitifully, rubbing at her right eye with her hand.

"I know," Rory muttered, his voice muffled by his crossed arms.

They stared at each other for another couple of seconds, and then the dam broke. They grabbed for one another in a desperate hug.

"I missed you." Rory cried quietly into Amelia's shoulder as they held on to each other for dear life.

The Doctor looked on in sympathetic understanding as he got up from his position against the car. Standing up and looking over the field again, checking Prisoner Zero was still where it had been. It was, thankfully.

"Okay." Rory began, wiping the tears out of his eyes with the back of his hand. As he stood up, he pulled Amelia up with him.

"Okay, Doctor. I'll help you." Rory agreed resignedly.

"Good, I'm glad. And what about you, Amelia? You still up for it?" The Doctor requested, slightly happier now that his 'associates' were.

"Of course. I live here. I'm not just going to sit and wait for the world to explode." Amelia reasoned, trying to sound braver than she felt.

"Right." The Doctor spoke slowly, slightly shocked by her maturity.

"So, what do we do?" Amelia asked unsurely.

"Well-" The Doctor began to explain.

"Wait. You got out." Rory stated, gesturing to the Doctor's abandoned and torn tie still trapped in the car door.

"Oh, err...yes." The Doctor agreed, glancing between Rory and the tie.

"So you could have just left." Rory elaborated quietly.

"Well, yes, but I couldn't leave you like that." The Doctor assured with a companionable pat to Rory's shoulder.

"Doctor! What do we do?" Amelia reiterated louder. The two of them not noticing the slightly awed expression on Rory's face.

"Stop that coma patient!" The Doctor exclaimed, sprinting off back towards the duck pond. Hurdling the small fence to the right of it and dashing off across the field.

"Doctor, what about your tie!?" Rory questioned, getting no answer and watching as Amelia ran after the Doctor's retreating form. Sighing, Rory shrugged it off; the tie was pretty ratty and burnt anyway.

After returning Mr Henderson's keys, he followed after the pair. Slightly less reluctant than he had been previously.


	3. Chapter 3

The Doctor abruptly stopped his mad dash ten yards short of Prisoner Zero, scowling at the menace. It snarled right back.

That was when Amelia caught up to him; the Doctor was abnormally fast when it came to running. And if all this running about was to be a regular occurrence, she would need a change in footwear. Those wellies were really starting to chafe. She was heavy breathing and hadn't had time to catch her breath before Rory came running up alongside them.

"I thought you said that wasn't my patient, Doctor." He reminded, slightly out of breath himself.

"Pure hyperbole, Rory. That is most definitely not your patient, but in fact, an alien disguised as him." The Doctor corrected his previous exaggeration.

"Yeah, you said that back at the house, but you never explained." Rory pointed out in a huff.

"Multiform, remember? It can disguise itself as anything, but it needs a live feed. A psychic link with a living but dormant mind. Your coma patient is ideal." The Doctor detailed tersely, prompting a bark out of the man.

"Patients. Plural, Doctor. I think it disguises its self as more than just one." Rory corrected, a tad abashedly.

"Wait, really? How do you know?" The Doctor questioned, finally pulling his gaze from Prisoner Zero to throw a bewildered glance toward Rory.

"Well, I've seen them, haven't I. Wondering around town." Rory clarified, sounding mildly exasperated.

"What? What do you mean?" The Doctor asked, even more confused, now fully facing Rory.

"I mean, I have seen them, the coma patients. People who are monitored 24/7 in the hospital, and I was seeing them out in the street. I thought I was seeing things again, so I started taking pictures." Rory elaborated hurriedly whilst pulling his phone out of his pocket, quickly clicking over to his photo gallery and handing it to the Doctor.

"Is that one of those 'video phones'?" Amelia asked curiously, finally catching her breath.

"Yeah," Rory answered as he distractedly watched the Doctor scroll through reams of pictures on his phone. They were all of the same group of people just standing around Leadworth.

"I only really started taking them because no one at work believed me when I told them. Not that the pictures helped; they still don't believe me. They just suggested I should take some time off to 'clear my head'." Rory rambled on awkwardly when the Doctor said nothing.

"Can I look?" Amelia urged, wanting to be included.

"Later, Amelia." The Doctor declined, prompting a pout out of the girl.

"And you're sure all these people are definitely in comas?" The Doctor pondered aloud, glancing up at Rory.

"I'm absolutely sure; there is no way any of them could've been there," Rory stated, sounding like he'd had to rationalise the pictures one too many times before.

"And you didn't think these would have been helpful a little sooner?" The Doctor complained with a hint of agitation.

"I didn't know they had anything to do with this!" Rory defended, gesturing at the furious, snarling man and dog.

"Right, well, better late than never." The Doctor conceded, turning back to Prisoner Zero and shoving Rory's phone in his back pocket.

"Wait, so you actually...you actually believe me?" Rory uttered in mild disbelief.

"Yes, I do." The Doctor assured firmly.

"No one else does," Rory mumbled sullenly.

"Well, Rory. I do." The Doctor reiterated earnestly.

He was still glaring at Prisoner Zero, who had gone back to scowling at the sun, so he didn't even get a chance to notice Rory's look of steadily growing respect.

"Oi! Prisoner Zero! Are you listening?" He bellowed tauntingly, trying to regain its attention.

"Doctor, will you stop yelling. People are really starting to stare." Amelia whispered loudly, placing a hand on his arm, trying to get him to properly listen. The residents of Leadworth weren't used to the oddities this morning had wrought. Drawing attention to themselves was not a good plan.

"Yeah, and do you really think taunting it is gonna do us any good? With the teeth on that thing, it could easily rip us to shreds." Rory chastised with concern.

"It wouldn't dare. Not in broad daylight, not with the old ball and chain up there monitoring the planet." The Doctor assured smugly.

If they'd been in a different situation, Rory would've pointed out the Doctor's misuse of that particular saying. But faced with the threat of death as they were, Rory kept quiet. He's not entirely sure the Doctor would understand anyway.

"Did you hear that? There are hundreds of ships up there scanning this planet for non-terrestrial technology." The Doctor continued cockily.

Seconds after he uttered those words, one of the ships flew into view over the horizon. It was massive, probably about the same size as the London eye in diameter. Looking like an enormous, electrified snowflake made of broken glass, just hanging in the sky. And right in the middle of the ship, observing its surroundings at a rapid pace, was the giant eyeball from Amelia's bedroom wall and Mrs Angelo's TV. It would have been quite beautiful if it wasn't so terrifying.

The townspeople began filming once again as Rory and Amelia gaped along with them.

"And nothing says 'non-terrestrial technology' like a sonic screwdriver." The Doctor beamed triumphantly, retrieving his sonic from his pocket.

The faces of Prisoner Zero studied the Doctor warily with a look of noncomprehension.

Seeming incredibly smug, the Doctor casually pointed his sonic upwards, where it began to emit a terrible, high-pitched wail. The sound caused Amelia and Rory to tear their eyes away from the massive eyeball ship along with several people around the group as well. If Amelia thought the Doctor's random bouts of yelling would arouse suspicion, well, it was nothing compared to what he was doing now.

The sound was almost unbearable but what was worse was the absolute anarchy it caused. All the nearby streetlights exploded, and all the car alarms started blearing simultaneously, including one with a somewhat bedraggled tie hanging from the door.

Some vehicles even started driving around of their own volition. A mobility scooter zoomed along the road with a distressed old woman screaming in the seat. A motorbike was doing wheelies by its self in front of the closed post office. A fire engine barreled down the street with no one at the helm as the firefighters chased after it begging it to stop.

Rory watched on in bemused shock as the tediously quiet little town he'd grown up in erupted in utter disarray. Amelia just stood there giggling at the ridiculousness of it all.

"I think someones going to notice, don't you?" The Doctor remarked arrogantly, provoking Prisoner Zero to bark furiously from both its mouths.

Looking rather pleased with himself and the chaos he'd created, the Doctor thought he'd go a step further, suddenly lowering his sonic. Turning its disruptive power on a nearby phonebox, which promptly blew up, shocking Amelia out of her giggly mood as Rory jumped in front of her to shield her from the shattered glass and array of sparks. He was once again left wondering if the Doctor actually knew what the hell he was doing. Rory really didn't think he did.

But that last explosion was one explosion too many for the sonic as it finally gave up the ghost. It fizzed and crackled in the Doctor's hand, and sparks cascaded around him as the things temperature suddenly skyrocketed to its melting point. He let go in shock, jumping back and letting the screwdriver fall to the ground.

"No, no! No, don't do that!!" The Doctor cried in frustration, crouching to pick up the fallen implement, but it was too late; the damaged was already done. The casing was melted beyond recognition, so much so the wiring was showing, which was burnt to a crisp. The Doctor tossed it back to the ground in resignation.

Now that the sonic had stopped working, the mayhem around them ceased. The people and vehicles calming down and going back to their day as if the most recent anomaly hadn't even occurred.

"Doctor, it's leaving." Rory pointed out as he watched the eyeball ship fly off back into the stratosphere.

The Doctor spun around and jumped to his feet in one swift movement just to see that Rory was right.

"No, come back. It's here! Come back! It's here. Prisoner Zero is here!" He yelled into the now seemingly empty sky.

As he continued his upward ranting, Prisoner Zero decided this would be the opportune moment to make its escape. It ditched its disguise and took on an almost liquid form instead, slithering down a nearby drain. Amelia had witnessed the whole thing.

"Doctor!" She exclaimed, grasping at his arm and successfully pulling his attention away from shouting at the sky.

"The thing, Prisoner Zero, it- it melted! And then it went down that grid." Amelia hastily described.

"Of course it did. That's just perfect!" The Doctor complained, utterly disgruntled as everything that could go wrong did—Damn Murphy's law.

"Well, what do we do now?" Rory asked with worry, not enjoying how hopeless the situation had become.

"It's hiding in Human form. We need to drive it out into the open." The Doctor muttered, thinking out loud and ignoring Rory's question.

"No Tardis, no screwdriver, twenty-three minutes. Come on, think. Think!" He clamoured, looking and sounding increasingly more desperate. Striding himself over to the drain, he peered down into it like that would give him all the answers he needed. Amelia and Rory soon followed suit, the latter even squatting so he could get a better look.

"So, that creature has been hiding in my house?" Rory questioned, not looking up from the drain.

"Yes, do keep up!" The Doctor bit out, his tone a tad harsher than he'd intended in his discontent.

"Yeah, but how long has it been there exactly? Do you know?" Rory specified, standing up from his squatting position to look at the Doctor. He was letting the Doctor's attitude slide because of how stressful the situation they'd been thrust into was, but if he tried snapping at Amelia like it would be an entirely different story.

"Ah, right. Well, presuming it got there around the same time we left and stayed there the entire time we were gone, that would be about twelve years, give or take a few days." The Doctor clarified with less bitterness to his voice.

"TWELVE YEARS!?" Rory practically screeched in abject horror.

"Multiforms can live for millennia. Twelve years is a pit-stop." The Doctor explained tersely.

"Err...That really isn't the issue here!!" Rory protested, on the verge of hysterics at the thought of that thing just being in his house the entire time he had, for longer, in fact. There had been mere walls between him and that beast every night he'd slept in his home. He couldn't even begin to describe how gut-wrenchingly awful that thought was.

"Why did they take so long to get here?" Amelia asked thoughtfully.

"Hmmm?" The Doctor murmured, drawing his gaze away from Rory's increasingly manic expression to pay attention to Amelia's questions.

"The eyeballs, Prisoner Zero's guards. Why did it take them the entire...time we were gone to get here? Is space travel really slow or something?" Amelia reiterated, struggling to verbally acknowledge the fact she'd been missing for twelve years.

"No, it's got nothing to do with speed. They were looking for Prisoner Zero, but when they spied us through the crack, we were their only lead, so they locked on. When we travelled through time, they followed us. They're only late because we are." The Doctor answered with a mildly apologetic twinge.

Her brow scrunched in thought at that, but she said nothing more.

"What was it DOING!?" Rory yelled frantically, emanating Distress and swiftly regaining the Doctor's attention.

"What?" The Doctor asked, stunned, slowly taking in Rory's distraught appearance.

"What was it doing all that time? The entire time I lived in that house, it was just there??" Rory reiterated at a slightly lower volume even though he was beginning to shake in his upset.

"Dressing up as people in comas, apparently." The Doctor quipped.

"Oh, speaking of." He muttered, pulling out the phone he remembered had recently been put into his possession.

"That really doesn't help!!" Rory squawked, his breathing quickly becoming erratic.

"Oh." The Doctor uttered, finally registering what was going on with Rory, ignoring the phone for now.

"Are you alright, Rory?" Amelia questioned, also taking note of Rory's sorry state.

"I...I-" Rory stuttered out in an attempt to answer her, finding it hard to breathe correctly, let alone talk.

"Rory, breathe. Just...deep breaths, okay?" The Doctor requested, trying to seem calm even though the world was threatening to end around them.

"You're fine. Everythings...fine. And you don't need to worry because Prisoner Zero will never be in your house again. By the end of the next twenty minutes, its guards will have captured it, or they'll blow up the planet. And then we'll all be dead, so it won't matter anyway." He continued, attempting to reassure Rory with his flawless logic.

"Still not helping." Rory grit out in a strained voice, his irritation toward the Doctor pulling him back slightly.

"Okay, well, just let's sit you down." The Doctor suggested placatingly, helping Rory manoeuvre to the curb next to the drain. Amelia sat down next to him and rubbed at his back comfortingly.

The Doctor stood facing them as he turned his attention back to the phone. He turned it on and resumed his previous photo scrolling, quickly counting each of the different faces.

"Eight patients, eight comas, eight disguises for Prisoner Zero." He murmured to himself.

"It was disguised as a dog as well, though. Is there a dog in a coma?" Amelia wondered, still rubbing circles into Rory's back, whose breathing was starting to become more regular.

"All depends on the victim's mind, a coma patient dreams they're walking a dog, Prisoner Zero gets a dog." The Doctor explained as he formulated his plan, shoving the phone in his back pocket once again.

"Laptop!" He announced, crouching before the two, who were getting quite used to his outbursts by this point.

"Your friend, what was his name?" The Doctor asked in a hurry, his face pensive and contorted in concentration.

"Who?" Rory murmured, sounding bored, but he was mostly just tired.

"You know, your friend! From before! He recognised Amelia, remember?" The Doctor ragged on, hastily trying to jog Rory's memory.

"Oh god, you mean Jeff, don't you? He is not my friend, Doctor." Rory complained, seeming revolted by the mere thought of being friends with Jeff.

"The trivialities don't matter. What does matter is that Jeff had a laptop in his bag. A laptop. Big bag, big laptop. I need Jeff's laptop." The Doctor ranted happily, getting a big dopey grin on his face and standing up from his crouching position.

"Now, you two, get to the hospital. Get everyone out of the coma ward. Clear the whole floor." The Doctor shouted over his shoulder as he began running back towards Mrs Angelo's house.

"Wha- wait, what do you mean!? How are we supposed to do that!?" Rory stuttered in shock as he scrambled to get back to his feet. He still didn't feel great, but this was as good as he was gonna get with the emotional whiplash the Doctor continually doled out.

"I'm sure you can figure something out! Now go! Phone me when you're done!!" The Doctor bellowed across the field whilst running at break-neck speeds.

"But you've got my phone!!" Rory tried to point out, but it was too late; the Doctor was already a speck in the distance.

"Ugh! Today is just one headache after another." He groaned into his hands as he dragged them across his face.

"So, to the hospital then?" Amelia spoke, getting up from the curb herself.

"Yeah, I guess so. I mean, how are we even gonna get there?" Rory snarked in response, sounding incredibly petulant.

"You work there, don't you? How do you usually get there?" Amelia questioned, looking mildly confused.

"Usually, I ride my bike to work, but it's back at the house, and we're kinda on the clock here." Rory reasoned, still sounding a tad bitter.

"Oh. Well, umm...we could catch a bus?" Amelia suggested, not even thinking it was a good idea herself.

"No, that would take too long as well. There's only one bus route around here, and the waiting time is about an hour." Rory dismissed.

Casting his gaze, he glanced around the town square, trying to find a solution to their most recent problem, and sure enough, he did. Surprisingly quickly, actually.

The answer came in the form of an old man, trotting towards the coffee shop and spinning his car keys on his index finger.

"Mr Henderson!! Could I just have a quick word?" Rory called out to him as he jogged over to the man, with Amelia bringing up the rear.

~~~~~

This was always Jeff's favourite part of the day. Coming home after a tiring morning at the post office, having an early dinner with his lovely Gran and then coming upstairs to relax on his computer.

Granted, things had been pretty weird when he got home. Being greeted by a frazzled man flapping about the end of the world, an Amelia Pond lookalike and Rory Williams of all people. Things had only gotten weirder when he'd seen and heard the eyeball on every channel of his Gran's TV, not to mention whatever was going on with the sun.

It was altogether rather troubling, but Jeff wasn't gonna let it get to him. He wasn't gonna let harbingers of doom in his living room or the strange-looking sun encroach on his good mood.

Besides, it wasn't like he could do anything about it, so what was the point in worrying. These kinda things always seemed to work themselves out in the end anyway. So he might as well enjoy himself while he could if things did turn sour.

And as such, about twenty-ish minutes after the troublesome trio had run off, Jeff found himself lazing on his bed half-heartedly browsing his Facebook homepage. It probably wasn't the most enjoyable thing he could be doing, but honestly, Jeff couldn't bring himself care.

It was then that he heard a multitude of clumsily heavy footsteps thundering up the stairs. There was no way that could be his Gran. And when the bedraggled, floppy-haired man from earlier burst through his bedroom door, he took a wild guess that the source of the footsteps was probably him.

"I thought you left," Jeff stated from where he sat sprawled on his bed.

"Yes, I did. And now I'm back, hello! That laptop, gimme." The Doctor quick fired, reaching for the device as he made his way toward the bed.

"What do you mean 'gimme'? You can't just-" Jeff tried to argue, but the Doctor completely ignored him.

Wrenching the laptop out of Jeff's grasp, he plonked himself at the end of the bed, where he began to type at an impressive speed.

"The Doctors back!" Mrs Angelo announced happily, making her way into the room as well.

"Yeah, I kind of gathered that, Gran," Jeff assured a tad sarcastically, gesturing towards the guy currently sat at the end of his bed.

"Is the world still coming to an end, dear?" Mrs Angelo asked a little too cheerily.

"Yes. And the sun's gone wibbly, so right now, somewhere out there, there's going to be a big old video conference call. All the experts in the world panicking at once, and do you know what they need? Me." The Doctor explained with a slight air of arrogance.

"Ah, and here they all are. All the big boys. NASA, Jodrell Bank, Tokyo Space Centre, Patrick Moore." He listed off as the names flashed up on the laptop screen.

"You can't just hack in on a call like that!" Jeff accused, peering over the Doctor's shoulder to get a better look at his laptop screen.

"Can't I?" The Doctor shot back smugly.

"Well, as long as you boys are having fun." Mrs Angelo practically singsonged as she tottered off out of the room, going back to whatever she was doing beforehand, closing the door as she went.

No sooner then she had, six faces cropped up on the screen. The Doctor put his psychic paper up to the laptop's webcam, showing it to the people on the screen, not that it did much to sate them.

"Who are you!?" One of them demanded.

"This is a secure call. What are you doing here?" Another retorted.

"Hello. Yeah, I know you should switch me off, but before you do, watch this." The Doctor announced smartly, opening up several windows and programs filled with equations and the like.

"Fermat's Theorem, the proof. And I mean the real one. Never been seen before. Poor old Fermat got killed in a duel before he could write it down." He prattled on in a serious tone, barely stopping for breath.

"My fault. I slept in." The Doctor whispered guiltily to Jeff.

"Oh, and here's an oldie but a goodie. Why electrons have mass." He continued as a video featuring sub-atomic particles popped into view.

"And a personal favourite of mine, faster than light travel with two diagrams and. A. Joke." The Doctor finished, emphasising the last part with a small chuckle.

"Look at your screens. Whoever I am, I'm a genius. Look at the sun. You need all the help you can get. Fellas, pay attention." He commanded, his voice firm and self-assured.

Shifting across to the left side of the bed, the Doctor placed the laptop on Jeff's desk as Jeff himself sidled up next to him to keep watching. Next, the Doctor took out Rory's phone and began tapping away at it incessantly.

"Sir, what are you doing?" One of the people from the conference call questioned impatiently.

"I'm writing a computer virus. Very clever, super-fast, and a tiny bit alive, but don't let on." The Doctor described briefly and concisely, not looking up from the phone.

"And why am I writing it on a phone? Never mind, you'll find out." He said directly to Jeff, smirking like they were both in on some big joke. Jeff nodded right back as if he knew what the Doctor was talking about, which he didn't at all. Not even slightly.

"Okay, I'm sending this to all your computers. Get everyone who works for you sending this everywhere. Email, text, Facebook, Blogger, Twitter, radar dish, whatever you've got: Use it. Any questions?" The Doctor directed without room for argument.

"Who's your cute friend?" Came the only question.

"Focus, people." The Doctor chastised sternly, sparing a quick glance at Jeff's slightly flushed face.

"What does this virus do?" Came a much more sensible question.

"It's a reset command, that's all. It resets counters. It gets in the wifi and resets every counter it can find. Clocks, calendars, anything with a chip will default at zero at exactly the same time." The Doctor revealed rapidly, but the people on the screen still didn't look entirely convinced.

"And yeah, I could be lying. Why should you trust me? I'll let my best man explain." He proclaimed vaguely.

Then there was a moment that spanned, at the most, fifteen seconds, but it felt much longer. They all just sat there. The Doctor, Jeff and the people in the conference call just sat there in awkward silence, all waiting for something to happen. Finally, the Doctor leaned over toward Jeff.

"Jeff, you're my best man." He whispered to him.

"You what?" Jeff choked out, sounding worried and looking very confused.

The Doctor pushed the computer screen half-way closed to give them some semblance of privacy and placed a reassuring hand on Jeff's shoulder.

"Listen to me. In ten minutes, you're going to be a legend. In ten minutes, everyone on that screen is going to be offering you any job you want. But first, you have to be magnificent. You have to make them trust you and get them working. This is it, Jeff, right here, right now. This is when you fly. Today's the day you save the world." The Doctor spoke reverently and with such assured determination that he soon had Jeff nodding along with him.

No one had ever looked at Jeff the way the Doctor was, and he was pretty sure the task that was being asked of him wasn't something he could actually do. But if this seemingly impossible man believed in him, then perhaps he should too. Besides, the prospect of getting a new job was a pretty good motivation in and of its self. He was so sick of working at the post office.

"Why me?" Jeff uttered in a quiet, little voice.

"It's your bedroom." The Doctor quipped with a smirk.

"Now go, go, go!" He chanted with a grin as he jumped up, bounded across the room and ran out the door.

Then Jeff was left alone in his bedroom with a computer full of super-geniuses all waiting on his command and the entire world's safety resting on his shoulders. This is not how he had seen this day going. He lifted the screen back up and was greeted with six agitated faces.

"Okay, guys, let's do this," Jeff affirmed with a hint of uncertainty as he started typing with all he had.

Though the typing briefly stopped when the Doctor ran back in.

"And delete your internet history!" He warned before dashing out of the room once more.

Jeff listened to him go as he resumed typing, and vaguely, somewhere in the back of his mind, he realised he'd been wrong earlier. It turns out there was something he could do about the weirdness going on around him after all.

~~~~~

Rory and Amelia had arrived at the hospital a few minutes prior. Mr Henderson had very nicely agreed to drive them after a small amount of pleading and threats of tears.

Before they got there, Rory had been worried they wouldn't let them in, seeing as they'd already sent him home once today. They being Dr Ramsden, Rory's boss.

But now that they were actually here, that just didn't seem very important anymore.

Something had happened. And from what Rory could gather at the overly-crowded front desk, that something was not good. Between when he had left this building earlier today and now, something terrible had occurred.

It was almost funny to think, he'd only left about an hour ago, yet it felt like a damn lifetime. Let's just say, the sooner Rory could go to bed, the better.

As Rory made his way back over to where Amelia was stood, she regarded him with a questioning look.

"What's going on?" She asked him when he reached her.

"I don't know; it doesn't seem like anyone does. And they're not letting anybody go up there." Rory relayed to her morosely.

"But that's where we need to be! Phone the Doctor." Amelia urged, really wanting to help.

"On it." Rory quickly assured, pulling Mr Henderson's phone out of his pocket and dialling his own number. Mr Henderson had also very kindly lent them his phone with only mild persuasion.

"Doctor? We got to the hospital, no thanks to you. But they won't let us near the coma ward." He expressed, filling the Doctor in once he answered the phone.

~

"Won't let you!? You're a nurse! It's a hospital! You have certain privileges!" The Doctor bellowed into the phone.

~

"What do you mean 'certain-? Actually, nevermind. It doesn't matter that I'm a nurse; they're not letting anyone up. Something weirds going on." Rory elaborated with a hint of irritation.

~

"Right, well, thanks for trying, I guess! I'll be there soon!" The Doctor shouted again, only this time he sounded a bit disappointed.

~

Rory was about to ask him how exactly he was planning on getting here in such little time when a sudden, ear-piercing screech filled the hospital reception. It was grating and obnoxiously loud. It was almost as bad as the Doctor's screwdriver had been.

It shocked him enough that he almost dropped Mr Henderson's phone, but luckily he didn't.

"Sorry, Doctor. Somethings happening, I've got to go." Rory excused, hanging up and sliding the phone back in his pocket.

After realising the noise was some kind of fire alarm, Rory watched as the already frantic people at the front desk became even more hysterical. All of them, even the receptionist, scrambled to vacate the apparent burning building.

Supposing they should probably leave as well, Rory glanced around but suddenly realised Amelia was no longer by his side. He panicked for a second, but then he noticed her just a few yards away, stood over by the wall.

Amelia stood there looking a tad guilty but mostly just pleased with herself. Next to her, at head height, was a busted fire alarm switch.

"You didn't?" Rory enquired, equal parts aghast and impressed.

"Come on! We can go upstairs now." Amelia chirped as she skipped towards the doors to the stairway, completely breezing past the blatant criminal act she'd just committed.

Shaking his head with a fond smile, he bounded over to the doors along with her. Soon they were heading up the stairs to the next floor.

~

"Don't worry! I've commandeered a vehicle!" The Doctor continued to yell into the phone, unaware that Rory was no longer there. He was careening down the quaint country road in the massive fire engine he'd used the sonic on earlier and now apparently stolen. The sirens were blaring, the lights were flashing, and the Doctor wore a massive grin on his face.


	4. Chapter 4

Finally, having reached the level the coma ward was on, Rory and Amelia left the stairs and entered one of the many corridors. But it wasn't in the same state as it had been the last time Rory had seen it.

There were medicine carts and trays bent out of shape and thrown to the floor. In amongst the mess were towels, blankets, rubber gloves and various other pieces of equipment strewn all across the floor. Besides that, there was another thing that stood out as odd. As far as the pair could see, there wasn't a single person anywhere else in the hallway.

Amelia absently took hold of Rory's hand. Hospitals were always immaculate and always bustling with people. What she saw before her now was anything but. The unusualness of it all set her on edge.

They were about a third of the way down the corridor when a woman came sprinting out of the nearest door, she was wearing a blue skirt and blazer set, and she had two young girls in tow, both wearing matching blue dresses.

"Nurse, please!" She gasped out desperately, looking very distressed.

"What happened?" Amelia asked, wanting to get to the bottom of whatever was going on. She inched forward to get marginally closer to the frightened-looking woman. Whereas Rory, who's grip was steadily tightening around Amelia's hand, began shuffling slightly backwards.

"There was a man—a man with a dog. I think Doctor Ramsden's dead. And the nurses." The scared woman explained in a rambling, shaky voice.

"That's gotta be Prisoner Zero! Quick, Rory, call the Doctor! He needs to know it's here!" Amelia demanded with a worried look in her eye.

But Rory did no such thing. He just stood there, staring at the woman with wide, terrified eyes. Like he'd seen a ghost or perhaps something much worse. All the while, he was still shuffling ever so slowly backwards.

"Rory?" Amelia called to him, not understanding what was going on.

The woman's timid demeanour instantly melted away, revealing the searing hatred underneath.

"You already know, don't you?" The woman stated in an irritated but steady voice.

"Know what? What's wrong, Rory?" Amelia questioned, unable to connect the dots.

"Well...um, unless the coma patients have woken up and fully recuperated in the last hour. Then that's...that's..." Rory stuttered out a feeble explanation but was unable to finish his sentence.

Tired of waiting for the nurse to confirm whether or not he knew, the woman decided to just get it over with.

All three of them, the woman and the two little girls, stretched opened their mouths impossibly wide to reveal dozens of protruding, elongated teeth. They unleashed a monstrous hiss from all three of their fanged jaws, revealing quite swiftly who they really were.

Amelia let out a scream, not unlike the one she'd done when she first laid eyes on Prisoner Zero back at the house. But unlike last time, she didn't let her fear paralyse her; instead, she turned away from the murderous alien and began running back down the hallway, dragging an uncooperating Rory along with her.

Thankfully he quickly came back to his senses, running full pelt alongside her while the needle-teethed trio chased after them, steadily catching up.

"Call the Doctor!" Amelia yelled in fear.

"Right now?" Rory questioned incredulously as they turned the corner on to another hallway. Being forced as they were, they had to take a long way round to the coma ward.

"Yes, now!" Amelia demanded, her breathing becoming more ragged.

Relenting, Rory struggled to pull Mr Henderson's phone out of his pocket. I mean, it's not like he was trying to outrun the thing that had apparently just murdered his boss and all his colleagues or anything. He unsteadily tapped his own number into the phone.

"Doctor! Yes, we got in. Doctor, that doesn't matter, listen! Prisoner Zero's here!" Rory bellowed breathily down the phone.

~

"You need to get out of there!" The Doctor yelled, trying to sound as serious as he could whilst shouting over the top of the sirens.

~

"You think I don't know that!?" Rory huffed, beginning to get out of breath.

Amelia screamed once again when Prisoner Zero bashed a cleaner's cart out of its way and into the wall.

~

"Rory? Was that Amelia? What's happening!?" The Doctor asked desperately, hating that his newest companions were in danger, and he was helpless to stop it.

~

Rory didn't reply for a moment because he had to concentrate on getting Amelia and himself through the coma ward's doors before Prisoner Zero caught up to them.

After they hurriedly slammed the doors shut in Prisoner Zero's multiple faces, Rory rammed a broom through the handles in a feeble attempt at keeping the ferocious alien out.

~

"Rory, talk to me!" The Doctor demanded, exuding worry in waves.

~

"We made it to the coma ward. We're both okay for now, but Prisoner Zero is right outside. It's getting in." Rory relayed hastily, backing away from the rattling doors in fear.

He manoeuvred Amelia behind him as they went. At the pace the thing was going, it'd get through in no time, and Rory wanted to keep Amelia as safe as possible. Even in these hopeless circumstances.

~

"Which window are you at?" The Doctor requested in a hurry.

~

"Wha...which window?? What does that have to do with-!?" Rory began to ask, the Doctor's talent for aggravating Rory rearing its head once again.

~

"Which window, Rory!?" The Doctor reiterated, swiftly interrupting Rory ridiculous bout of doubt.

~

"Ugh! I don't know! The first floor, on the left!" Rory blurted out, sounding stressed.

"One, two, three...fourth from the end." He hurriedly counted.

And that was when the broom finally gave way, Prisoner Zero using the little girls' hands to pull open the doors.

As it stepped into the room, all three of the creature's faces were contorted with malicious intent, baring its grotesque teeth at the petrified pair.

"Naive, little Rory Williams. I watched you grow up. Twelve years and you never even knew I existed. Too busy searching for your lost friend. Everyone told you she was dead, but you never truly believed that, did you? And you were right. Still, we can soon change that." Prisoner Zero taunted menacingly, radiating smugness from its very core and exposing its fangs once more.

Rory was sure this was the end, and after such a miserable life, he could probably resign himself to this fate. He just wished he could have saved Amelia from it. As for Amelia herself, she just stood there, still gripping Rory's hand. Her eyes were clamped shut in an effort to will the monstrosity before her away. Briefly, she wondered if the Doctor would manage to save the world without them.

But just when all hope seemed lost, Mr Henderson's phone, still clutched in Rory's sweaty palm, received a text.

Looking away from Prisoner Zero for the first time since it entered, Rory glanced down at the phone. On the screen, there was a text that read 'DUCK!'.

A fear-addled mind does not make quick-thinking easy. But hearing sirens getting closer, coupled with the Doctor's questions about windows, he quickly put two and two together.

Dropping himself to the floor and pulling Amelia down with him, he tried to shield her from the glass that was about to shatter around them.

But it never came.

Well, it did. A window was broken, the shattered glass did fall, and the end of a fire engine ladder was what broke it. It just wasn't near Rory and Amelia. It was the wrong window.

They all, Prisoner Zero included, watched as the Doctor clambered through the broken window, hopped off the end of the ladder and landed in a pile of broken glass. He then glanced about, only to realise he wasn't where he'd intended to be, and there was a hospital bed between him and his companions.

"You said 'fourth from the end'!" The Doctor complained huffily.

"Err...sorry must've miss counted," Rory muttered, not really seeing how it mattered which window he entered through just as long as he was here. But with everything that was going on, Rory couldn't find it in himself to argue. He was alright enough to realise that he and Amelia probably didn't need to be crouching anymore, getting himself up and helping Amelia as he did.

Rolling his eyes and scoffing loudly, the Doctor moodily made his way around the bed to his companions. Casually shaking the broken glass off the bottom of his Converse as he went.

"Anyway, where was I?" The Doctor pondered once he reached them, with only a small hint of petulance.

"Oh, right! Hello! You're alive, hooray!" He cheered suddenly, pulling them into a brief but tight hug.

"Am I late?" The Doctor asked, rapidly moving on to the next part of his plan. Taking a quick look at the flip clock above the ward's entrance just to check. According to that, the time was 11:48.

"No, six minutes to go. So there's still time." He remarked, reassuring himself.

"Time for what, Timelord?" Prisoner Zero spat distastefully.

The Doctor sauntered away from his companions and closer to the Multiform. Not close enough to be attacked but close enough to show he wasn't afraid. Prisoner Zero threw him a disingenuous smile, which he gladly returned.

"Drop the disguise. They'll find you in a heartbeat. No one has to die." The Doctor tried to persuade, actively side-stepping the other alien's question.

Part of Rory felt like he should mention that people had died. His boss, the people he worked with, had died. It hadn't properly sunk in yet, but it had still happened. However, another, much larger part didn't want to draw any attention to himself in this situation. So he kept quiet.

"The Atraxi will kill me this time. So, if I am to die, let there be fire." Prisoner Zero incited with a bloodthirsty glint in its eyes, all six of them.

"Alright." The Doctor almost laughed; if he didn't, he'd probably cry in frustration at the pure, unadulterated mercilessness of the being in front of him.

"You came to this world by opening a crack in space and time. Do it again. Just leave." The Doctor tried a different approach, attempting to de-escalate the rising tension.

"The crack in my wall?" Amelia piped up, surprising everyone.

"...Yes." The Doctor answered with only slight hesitance, throwing Amelia a sideways glance. Fondness ebbing away at the corners of his expression, threatening to melt the seriousness off his face.

"No." Prisoner Zero cut in with no hesitation what so ever.

"No?" The Doctor pressed, seriousness fully taking the reins once more.

"No, I did not open the crack." Prisoner Zero specified coldly.

"Well, somebody did." The Doctor stated in a tired yet threatening way.

"The cracks in the skin of the universe, don't you know where they came from?" Prisoner Zero pondered with a patronising tone.

Casting its gaze over the Doctor's stony complexion, the creature instantly had its answer.

"You don't, do you?" It sneered, traces of mockery at the edges of its voice.

"The Doctor in the Tardis doesn't know. Doesn't know! Doesn't know!" Prisoner Zero full-on mocked, its voice shifting from the woman's to a little girl's just to exaggerate the Doctor's ridicule.

Neither Rory nor Amelia took too kindly to that notion; the entire statement dredged up memories of past derision and unpleasant times for both. But also, neither of them was about to start criticising a creature that, mere moments ago, was planning on tearing them limb from limb. The Doctor himself might have been more aggrieved if he hadn't just noticed the flip clock ticking along to 11:50.

"The universe is cracked. The Pandorica will open. Silence will fall." Prisoner Zero intoned ominously, girl's voice and mockery falling away in the wake of the Multiform's murderous glare. The Doctor glared right back, with less murder and more resentment in his eyes. Amelia and Rory could only glance at one another, sharing confused looks at the creature's bewildering statement.

For a moment, nothing happened. The two Humans stood silently in abject fear, both still grasping tightly on to the other's hand. The two non-Humans continued their sinister glaring match. Besides the soft murmur of the hospital machines, the ward was deathly silent. You could've heard a pin drop.

Then the flip clock ticked once more, seemingly louder this time as if highlighting its importance.

"And we're off!" The Doctor cheered, his serious face becoming smug.

"Look at that." He declared, looking and sounding very pleased with himself. Gaining nothing but confused looks from everyone else in the room.

"Look at that!" He reiterated, this time fervently gesturing to the flip clock, which now read 0:00.

And look, they did. Well, they all gave it a quick glance before looking back to the Doctor.

"Yeah, I know, just a clock. Whatever. But do you know what's happening right now?" The Doctor quick fired cockily, not actually wanting an answer.

"In one little bedroom, my team are working. Jeff and the world." He proceeded, his voice going slightly quieter as he tried to keep his pride at bay. Earning a silent eye-roll from Rory at the mention of Jeff.

"And do you know what they're doing? They're spreading the word all over the world, quantum fast." The Doctor continued with vigour.

"The word is out. And do you know what the word is?" He asked, trying to tamper down his boastfulness as he fidgeted in excitement.

"The word is Zero." The Doctor stated, pride finally winning out as it flowed from him in waves.

"Now, me, if I was up in the sky in a battleship, monitoring all Earth communications, I'd probably take that as a hint. And if I had a whole battle fleet surrounding the planet, I'd be able to track a simple old computer virus to its source in, what, under a minute?" He rattled off at a rapid pace and with a hint of mockery. Wanting to say everything he'd had planned before things go sideways, especially with the vicious look Prisoner Zero was throwing his way.

"The source, by the way, is right here." The Doctor revealed with a satisfied grin, lifting Rory's phone for all to see.

Blindingly bright light blazed through the hospital's windows; once the Atraxi arrived, they soon made their arrival known. The massive eyeball ship hovered over the building menacingly.

"Oh! And I think they just found us!" The Doctor announced brightly, not looking away from Prisoner Zero. Rory and Amelia, on the other hand, stepped over to the nearest window to get a good look at the eyeball ship, which they now knew was called the Atraxi.

Rory also took note of hospital employees and patients on the ground below, huddled beside the discarded fire engine. He saw that a few people had been wheeled out in hospital beds and wheelchairs. He hoped they survived the extra vulnerability he'd helped put upon them.

"The Atraxi are limited. While I'm in this form, they'll still be unable to detect me. They've tracked a phone, not me." Prisoner Zero reasoned cooly, not yet feeling beat.

"Yeah, but this is the good bit. I mean, this is my favourite bit." The Doctor admitted, looking a little too pleased.

"Do you know what this phone is full of?" He questioned, not even waiting for an answer.

"Pictures of you." The Doctor declared, altogether too smug.

"Every form you've learned to take, right here. All the coma patients, all thanks to a very clever friend of mine." He elaborated, throwing Rory a brief yet grateful smile. Which Rory did not return, as he was very much trying to pretend he wasn't there.

"Ooo, and being uploaded about now." The Doctor said as he sent the photos to the Atraxi.

"And the final score is, no Tardis, no screwdriver, three minutes to spare. Who da man?" He boasted unabashedly, pumping his fists in the air and doing a little bounce in triumph.

"Whoo Hoo!" Amelia exclaimed, joining in the celebration. And this time, Rory did smile, genuinely amused by the ridiculousness of the pair.

"It matters not, for I shall take on a new form." Prisoner Zero interrupted the joyful little commotion, still totally unfazed.

"Oh, stop it. You know you can't. It takes months to form that kind of psychic link." The Doctor practically scoffed, not believing the Multiform for a second.

"And I've had years." Prisoner Zero remarked threateningly, it's three-person disguise taking on an ominous, golden glow.

Then, without warning, Rory collapsed to the floor, Mr Henderson's phone clattering against the ground as he went.

"Rory!" Amelia wailed in shock, falling to her knees at his side and grasping at his hoodie in worry.

"No! Rory!?" The Doctor cried out as he ran back to his companions, suddenly and appropriately wracked with fear. Especially when the light of the Atraxi disappeared from the windows, his plan being unfairly overcome for the second time that day.

"You've got to hold on, Rory! Don't sleep! You've got to stay awake, please." He begged desperately, taking hold of Rory's face in his hands.

Amelia, who was highly distressed and utterly confused, looked away from Rory's sleeping form and glanced up at Prisoner Zero. Only, when she did, she found something very peculiar in the alien's place.

"Doctor, look!" She called out, gaining the Doctor's attention.

He looked at Amelia, then following her gaze, he too saw Prisoner Zero's odd, new disguise.

In the middle of the ward stood a little girl. She had firey, orange hair and wore a red school jumper with a pleated skirt. She didn't say anything or have any kind of expression on her face, looking utterly void of life.

"Well, that's not Rory." The Doctor retorted, his brow scrunched in confusion as he sat up, removing his hands from Rory's face.

"No. It's me." Amelia pointed out.

"But I don't understand." She whined, not at all enjoying the uncertainty of the situation.

"Nor do I." The Doctor confirmed.

"Why her? You're linked with him. Why are you copying her?" He asked, genuinely puzzled and actually wanting an answer this time. Jumping up from his kneeling position, he marched back toward the other alien to get a closer look.

"I'm not." A young voice affirmed, but the fake Amelia's lips hadn't moved.

A little boy stepped out from behind fake Amelia with her hand in his grasp. The boy had shaggy, blonde hair that was getting in his eyes, and he wore a matching school jumper with a pair of grey slacks.

"Rory..." Amelia gasped quietly, eyes going wide as she confirmed the Doctor's suspicions.

"Yes, Rory. Poor, little Rory Williams." Prisoner Zero drawled out in a younger version of Rory's voice.

"What a sad, boring life he's led. Losing everyone he holds dear—first, his mother, then his best friend and most recently his father. Even your precious Auntie Sharon left him. It's quite tragic, really. And yet he's still dreaming of you, Amelia. Of you coming back and keeping your promise. What a disappointment you've been." It continued harshly with a look of hatred.

The creature's vile words pulled a sob out of Amelia, she already felt guilty enough, and it wasn't even her fault.

"No!" The Doctor denied angrily.

"You are not a disappointment." He stated earnestly, briefly turning to give Amelia an apologetic look.

"He's dreaming about her because he can hear her." The Doctor proposed instead, turning back to give Prisoner Zero an indescribably dark look. Forming a new and, hopefully, successful plan, he skidded back over to kneel next to Rory once again.

"Rory, don't just hear, listen. Please listen." He pleaded, both hands holding Rory's face a second time.

Prisoner Zero's newest form began to wane, taking on the golden light once more.

"Look." Amelia requested quietly, still quite sad.

Doing as she asked, the Doctor looked up and saw the Multiform's new disguise. This time it was composed of three people. One of them was still Amelia, looking much the same apart from a wardrobe change. It was now sporting the cardigan-nighty-wellies combo that the real Amelia had going on. The second figure along was a copy of Rory as he was now. But the third person along was an extremely bedraggled-looking young man. He had floppy, dark brown hair, and he wore torn and burnt clothes with a pair of dirty converse.

The Doctor had no idea who that was supposed to be.

"Well, that's you and Rory. But who's that other one meant to be?" He asked Amelia, sounding thoroughly unimpressed.

"That's you!" Amelia answered, probably not as surprised as she should have been but surprised none the less.

"Me?" The Doctor squawked, looking down at himself.

"That's what I look like?" The Doctor wondered aloud, still not sounding very impressed.

"Yes!" Amelia almost shouted.

"Do you not know because you're 'brand new'?" She then queried, remembering the Doctor's odd statements from earlier.

"Err...yes, probably. Anyway, that means I was right. He is listening." The Doctor affirmed hopefully, turning back to face Rory.

"Stop." Prisoner Zero demanded through the fake Rory's clenched teeth.

"Rory, remember the room. The room in your house that you couldn't see. Remember you went inside. I tried to stop you, but you did. You went into the room. You went inside. Rory, dream about what you saw." The Doctor implored, ignoring the murderous Multiform and desperately hoping his plan would work.

"No! No, no! NO!" Prisoner Zero bellowed in Rory's voice as it glowed for the third time.

Amelia and the Doctor watched as it transformed into the grotesque, snake-like beast Rory and Amelia had seen back at the house. Getting up once more, the Doctor walked over to the thing, knowing for sure this time his plan had worked.

"Well done, Prisoner Zero. A perfect impersonation of yourself." The Doctor congratulated sarcastically as the Multiform hissed in his direction.

"Prisoner Zero is located. Prisoner Zero is restrained." The Atraxi's voice boomed from up above. Their light returned to blaze through the hospital windows, just the same if not brighter than before. And Prisoner Zero had finally been caught after twelve long years of freedom. It squirmed erratically in the Atraxi's trap, unable to break free.

Giving up its pathetic wriggling as the Atraxi began to transport it to their ship, it got one last look at the Doctor.

"Silence, Doctor. Silence will fall." It prophesied in a surprisingly high voice before disappearing altogether.

And then they were gone. The Atraxi flew off, taking their murderous, space criminals and threats of destruction with them.

The Doctor dashed over to the window he'd broken and looked outside, just checking to see if everything was back in order. It looked okay, but he was not happy, not even a little bit. He pulled Rory's phone out of his pocket once more and began dialling.

"The sun. The sky, it's back to normal." Amelia stated in relief, peering out the window from where she still kneeled next to Rory.

"Does that mean it's over?" She asked, sounding extremely tired now that the danger had subsided.

In response, the Doctor just ruffled her hair affectionately as he walked past her back to the middle of the ward.

"Ugh..." Rory groaned, swiftly making his consciousness known.

"God, that was weird." He mumbled, his eyes just barely fluttering open as he attempted to take in his surroundings. They soon snapped open once Amelia came into view.

"Amelia?" Rory asked quietly, feeling disorientated.

"Hey, Rory." Amelia greeted with a small yawn.

"Wait, that wasn't...that wasn't a dream? That was real!?" He yelled in disbelief, sitting up a little too quickly and feeling a bit light-headed.

"Yes, hi. We are both still very real." The Doctor confirmed, not looking away from the phone.

"Doctor? I...you...wait. Wha- what happened?" Rory questioned as he glanced around the room, sounding a bit out of it.

"The Doctor saved the world. He scared all the monsters away, and I think he used your dreams to do it." Amelia explained happily with tired eyes, her words making the Doctor smile fondly. But her inane explanation only succeeded in further confusing Rory's sleep-addled mind.

"No, I didn't." The Doctor quipped. He was still messing with Rory's phone, which Rory himself only just noticed.

"You didn't what?" Rory asked, not yet fully awake.

"Save the world; I'm not finished yet." The Doctor elaborated, still not quite explaining.

"What do you mean? What are you even doing?" Rory pressed further, his irritation toward the Doctor coming back and waking him up a little bit more.

"Tracking the signal back." The Doctor answered vaguely.

"Oh, and sorry. In advance." He added sheepishly.

"Sorry for what?" Rory inquired, resigning himself to the fact that no one planned on answering his questions properly.

"It's just...the bill." The Doctor replied, turning to face the pair and pointing at Rory's phone with a nervous grin.

"Err. No-!" Rory tried to interject.

"Oi!" The Doctor swiftly interrupted as the phone finally connected.

"I didn't say you could go!" He asserted, seething with anger.

"Article fifty-seven of the Shadow Proclamation. This is a fully established level five planet, and you were going to burn it? What? Did you think no-one was watching?" The Doctor reeled off, sounding extremely disappointed.

"You lot, back here, now." He demanded, leaving no room for argument as he hung up the phone and tossed it back to Rory. He only just caught it in his half-awake state.

"Okay, now I've done it." The Doctor announced as he marched moodily out of the coma ward.

"But- but they left! Why would you tell them to come back??" Amelia cried out, her sleepiness dispersing in the wake of her renewed shock. Hopping up and over Rory as she scrambled after the Doctor's retreating form.

"Wait, wait, wait! He did what now!?" Rory yelled, utterly flabbergasted. He, too, got himself up off the floor, hastily chasing after the pair and forgetting all about Mr Henderson's phone.

So there it lay, left and discarded with its freshly cracked screen, in the middle of the now silent coma ward.

~~~~~

The three of them marched their way down the corridor. Well, the Doctor marched. Amelia was skipping nimbly beside him, and Rory was walking a few yards behind, trying and failing to catch up with the pair.

The agitation and confusion were evident on Rory's face; he had thought he was starting to understand the Doctor. He thought he'd finally found someone who got how crazy and terrifying the world could be. But with the Doctor's most recent mysteriously reckless act, Rory was forced to face a rather harsh reminder: the Doctor was just another crazy and terrifying thing that he had to be wary of. It was ridiculous of him to even try to think otherwise.

"Doctor? Why did you tell the A- Atraxi? Err whatever. Why did you tell them to come back?" Amelia persisted, her voice stumbling over the eyeball ships proper name.

"They broke the rules. I'm just gonna remind them why they don't wanna do that. Least of all here." The Doctor explained darkly, not slowing his pace even a little.

"And you thought you'd do that by pissing them off down the phone so they come back and finish the job!" Rory interjected from behind, being almost entirely ignored aside from a quick glance from Amelia.

"So, um...what's the Shadow Proclamation?" Amelia asked unsurely, just trying to avoid another argument.

"Space police. They have rules, laws in place to protect planets like this. But more than just them, this planet is protected by me." The Doctor answered seriously and earnestly.

"Yeah, a bang-up job you're doing and all," Rory muttered snidely and apart from the Doctor's scowl deepening, he once again went totally ignored.

"Where are we going?" Amelia questioned with a sigh.

"The roof." The Doctor quipped without a thought but soon traded his scowl for a look of intrigue as he noticed a door to his right. 

"No, hang on." He uttered absently, abruptly changing his mind. Opening the door, the Doctor marched through it out of sight. Amelia was quick to follow.

~

Inside the room, the Doctor was already rummaging through the lockers lining the walls. Upon seeing the lockers, Amelia quickly concluded that they had entered some kind of locker room.

"Why are we in here?" Amelia wondered aloud, not understanding the sudden detour.

"I'm saving the world - I need a decent shirt." The Doctor proclaimed enthusiastically, throwing the clothes he liked on to the bench in the middle of the room.

"I saw what I looked like when Prisoner Zero copied me. Well, to hell with the raggedy. It's time to put on a show." He elaborated whilst trying to figure out which pair of trousers were more likely to fit him.

"You might be able to ignore me, Doctor," Rory complained, making a sudden entrance into the locker room.

"But you can't ignore the fact that you just invited aliens back to Earth. Actual aliens, deadly aliens, aliens of death!" He went on, his words becoming slightly exaggerated.

"I didn't invite them! It's not a ruddy social call!" The Doctor defended as he picked out a nice pair of braces.

"And what are you doing now? Stealing clothes!?" Rory questioned incredulously, repeatedly blindsided by the ridiculousness of the man in front of him.

"I'm not stealing them; I'm borrowing them." The Doctor clarified, taking off his converse.

"Yeah, likely story. Those clothes belong to people, you know." Rory chastised half-heartedly, quite tired of being the voice of reason.

"If the Doctor's getting new clothes, I want some too!" Amelia exclaimed, jumping out of her uncomfortable wellies.

"Kids clothes are over there." The Doctor provided, gesturing without even looking up.

"Thanks!" Amelia cheered, bounding over to the appointed lockers.

"Oh, yes. Be my guest, why don't you? You two do realise stealing is wrong, right? And very illegal." Rory snarked in disbelief.

"Or is stealing on the list of crimes you're okay with? Like breaking and entering or setting off fire alarms when there's no fire." He continued in exasperation.

"I didn't set off any fire alarms." The Doctor remarked, looking confused as he halted what he was doing.

"Nope! That was me. I did it so we could get up to the coma ward." Amelia supplied as she gathered a massive assortment of clothes.

"Ah, I see. That's why I got such a warm reception when I arrived in a fire engine." The Doctor replied, continuing to ransack the tub of socks he'd found.

"Ugh! You two are unbelievable!" Rory groaned, covering his face with hands in a dramatic fashion.

"Okay, well, I'm gonna get changed now!" Amelia chirped, hauling up the massive pile of clothes into her arms. Dropping a pair of shorts as she went. Dashing into a nearby changing room, she kicked the door shut and locked it behind her.

About to resume his complaining, Rory removed his hands from his face only to discover the Doctor had started getting undressed.

"Oh, god! You could've given me some kinda warning!" Rory squawked, his face heating up as he slammed his hands back over his eyes.

"Huh?" The Doctor uttered, glancing back and taking in Rory's flustered demeanour.

"Oh." He murmured in realisation.

"Turn your back if it embarrasses you." The Doctor suggested with amusement.

"Right then, I will. I'll go sit in a changing room, where you should be!" Rory griped, making an abrupt one-eighty right into the stall next to Amelia's. Plonking himself down on the seat as he attempted to banish the heat from his face.

"Rory?" Came Amelia's curious little voice.

"What?" Rory grumbled into his hands.

"Back at the house, why did you say six months when we'd been gone...a lot longer?" Amelia asked calmly but still avoiding the amount of time she'd actually been missing.

"Oh, well, because...because the first time you didn't ask how long you'd been gone. You asked how long Sharon had been gone." Rory muttered quietly, certain he was not going to enjoy this line of questioning.

"So Auntie Sharon's been gone for six months?" Amelia continued over the rustle of clothes.

"Yeah," Rory answered, sounding quite dejected.

"And by 'gone', do you mean she moved away..." Amelia started hesitantly.

"Or do you mean gone like your Dad?" She finished sadly.

"How did you know about him? You were still missing when-!" Rory began to exclaim in shock.

"Prisoner Zero said whilst you were asleep!" Amelia hastily interrupted, not wanting to freak him out again.

"Oh...great," Rory uttered with a sigh.

"I'm sorry, Rory." Amelia consoled, something she was far too used to doing for someone her age.

"Well, err...I'm sorry too, Amelia, because um...yeah. She...she's gone." He stuttered out in answer.

"Like...your Dad?" Amelia reiterated, sounding very small.

"Yeah," Rory replied, slightly disconcerted by his wavering voice.

Aside from the sounds the Doctor and Amelia were making as they got changed, the locker room remained silent for a moment. Letting Amelia ruminate on the new information she'd just received. Although, honestly, she'd already pretty much guessed the truth. The question of where her Auntie was had burned in her brain ever since they'd arrived earlier that morning. And with Prisoner Zero mentioning her after listing the people Rory knew to be dead. Well, let's just say she connected the dots.

It was nice having a proper answer, even if it wasn't the one she wanted. At least she wasn't just left wondering. But it didn't half put a damper on the already rather sour mood.

"I'm ready!" Amelia announced, breaking the silence.

"Alright, let's have a look then." The Doctor responded brightly, attempting to lighten the seemingly sombre atmosphere.

"Hmmm, are you decent, Doctor?" Amelia requested cheekily, sounding amused.

"Ugh! You humans! Yes, I'm decent." The Doctor huffed indignantly, inciting a small giggle out of Amelia.

"Good," Rory said smugly.

The two of them, Rory and Amelia, stepped out of their respective stalls almost in sync. And, as promised, the Doctor was indeed decent, he hadn't yet finished getting ready, but he was decent at least.

For his new outfit, he had chosen a salmon shirt with red pinstripes and a pair of skinny, black pants. He had red braces attached at the waist but not yet pulled up over his shoulders, just left to dangle at his sides. He also had a selection of colourful ties draped around his neck, unable to choose which he liked the most. He'd even found a rather expensive looking, gold watch but he seemed to be wearing it the wrong way round.

"Looking good, Doc!" Amelia cheered upon seeing the man, who was currently trying to select a pair of shoes.

Glancing away from the array of footwear, the Doctor grinned up at the reemerging pair.

"Not so bad yourself, Pond." He shot back, receiving a grateful smile in return.

Amelia had exchanged her cardigan and nighty for something much more appropriate for adventure. She'd picked out a cream blouse which she wore under a stylish, scarlet pinafore, accompanied by a thick pair of bright red socks. Amelia was thrilled at the prospect of choosing her own style, and with the reception she was getting, she was sure she'd chosen well.

"Yeah, you both look great in those clothes," Rory added somewhat awkwardly.

"Especially considering they're stolen." He continued to complain, picking up where he left off now that no one was half-dressed.

Giving him no more than eye-roll in response, the Doctor resumed looking through the many pairs of shoes, and Amelia joined him. Eventually, they both found perfect fits.

The Doctor found a lovely pair of lace-up ankle boots, whilst Amelia found a robust set of running shoes. She thought about how uncomfortable she'd been running in her old wellies and decided trainers would be much better suited. Plus, they looked far cooler than her wellies.

"Right, come along! I'm sure we've left them waiting long enough." The Doctor declared, striding out the door and grabbing a tweed jacket as he went.

Rory began to follow him with a sigh but was stopped by a small hand on his arm. Glancing down, he noticed Amelia looked a lot sadder than she had moments before.

"Amelia? What's wrong?" Rory questioned, worry taking hold as he kneeled down to her level.

"It's just...I'm sorry, Rory," Amelia stated unhappily.

"I know. I know that." Rory affirmed earnestly, moving forward to give her a hug which she gratefully returned.

"I didn't mean to leave for so long..." Amelia mumbled into Rory's hoodie.

"I know that too. It's fine." Rory tried to comfort her.

"It's not, though!" Amelia wailed, tightening her arms around Rory.

"I was gone, and you were all alone! And my Auntie, she- she's really gone! She never knew what happened to me, and now she never will! And I...I never got to say goodbye." She whimpered, tears pricking at the corners of her eyes as they had one too many times that day already.

"I thought you seemed too calm," Rory muttered, annoyed he hadn't noticed her turmoil sooner.

"I didn't want to go on in front of the Doctor; he already feels guilty," Amelia explained meekly.

"Good. He deserves to; it's his fault." Rory reasoned sternly, once again trying to remind himself why the Doctor was not his friend.

"But he didn't mean to either. We both made a mistake." Amelia defended sadly.

"Amelia. The Doctor is an adult, and he needs to take responsibility for his actions. If he knew the risks, he shouldn't have gambled your safety." Rory argued, pulling away from the hug to look Amelia in the eyes.

"But I knew the risks!" Amelia argued right back.

"You're eight! It's not your job to decide what's best for you. And it's certainly not your job to worry about the Doctor feeling guilty or what happened to me while you were gone. That's our mess to deal with, not yours." Rory asserted honestly.

"Your job is to figure out how you're feeling. And if your feeling sad, don't hide it from us. We're here to help. Well, I am, at least." Rory finished his mildly emotional rant, pulling Amelia in for a hug once again.

"The Doctor's helpful too. He did just save the entire planet," Amelia uttered after a second.

"I suppose there is that," Rory admitted.

"And you have to forgive him a little; he's all muddled. He keeps saying he's brand new." Amelia explained as if that was a perfectly normal excuse.

"Well, if you told me the Doctor was born yesterday, I'd believe you." Rory joked snarkily, thankfully making Amelia giggle once more.

Just then, the locker room door swung open once again, and the Doctor stepped back inside.

"Are you two coming or what?" He questioned huffily, but his demeanour soon changed when he noticed the hugging and Amelia's teary face.

"Amelia? Are you alright?" The Doctor asked with uncertainty.

"Yes, I'm..." Amelia began but remembering Rory's words, she changed her mind.

"Actually, no, I'm not alright. I feel...sad. My Auntie's gone, and I'm never going to see her again." She admitted glumly.

"Oh. I see." The Doctor stated quietly.

Then he got down next to Rory and wrapped his arms around the both of them. Silently joining in the hug.

"I hope you both know that I am very sorry. If I could go back and change it, I would, but I can't." He spoke candidly.

"Why not? I thought you had a time machine." Rory questioned, sounding very sceptical.

"It would cause a paradox," Amelia answered in a serious tone of voice, making the Doctor smile just a little bit. Now knowing that Amelia had listened earlier when he'd tried to teach her about the subject.

"Oh, so like, if you know something happened, you can't go back and change it," Rory remarked as if it was the most straightforward concept in the world.

"Yes! Exactly that!" The Doctor exclaimed, pleasantly surprised by Rory's understanding.

"Wait, how do you know what a paradox is?" He then asked, slightly taken aback, used to having to explain these kinds of things. He leaned away from the hug to get a better look at Rory.

"It's Sci-fi, isn't it? Everyone knows that kinda stuff nowadays." Rory shrugged nonchalantly.

"Sci-fi. Hmmm, I see." The Doctor murmured in thought for a moment.

"Right, well, I really do need to go speak with the Atraxi now, so..." He suddenly announced, jumping up from his crouched position.

"You don't have to if you don't want to, but you are welcome to come with me." The Doctor offered sheepishly, not wanting to upset anyone further.

"Um, yes. Yes, I want to come." Amelia affirmed with a small nod.

"Alright." Rory agreed, also standing back up.

"Someone has to make sure you don't do something stupid and get the world blown up." He huffed snidely, casually offering Amelia his hand, which she instantly took.

"Of course." The Doctor sighed wistfully, throwing a fond look in Rory's direction. Then, just as suddenly as he'd come back, he left. Swanning off, right out the door.

Rory wasn't entirely sure how he felt about the way the Doctor just looked at him. But deciding to file those thoughts away for further analysis later, he and Amelia promptly made their way out of the locker room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just going to add: It didn't dawn on me until after I'd written it that the locker room was a staff locker room, and therefore probably wouldn't have an abundance of kids clothes. But I really like that scene, so I just left it the way it is. Just roll with it. Thanks.


	5. Chapter 5

Stepping out on to the hospital roof was considerably intimidating. For above them, about thirteen feet up, loomed the Atraxi ship. It was unabashedly staring at the trio as if it could see right through them. Although, to be fair, staring was really all it could do.

The Doctor strode out first, not at all shocked by the Atraxi's return. People usually did as he asked when he threatened Shadow Proclamation involvement. Little did they know that his fury alone was much worse.

He was quickly followed by Amelia and Rory, and to them, such a sight was quite daunting. Rory had only seen the ships from afar or on a TV screen. The close-up experience was quite different. Even Amelia, who'd seen the eyeball close up through the crack in her wall, wasn't enjoying this situation.

The pair were still holding hands, and their grip had tightened significantly since arriving upon the roof. Rory was also now holding the tweed jacket the Doctor had chosen. How he'd ended up being the one to carry it was anyone's guess.

"This still a great plan, is it? Explain to me why you did this again." Rory snapped in a jittery voice, sounding equally as petrified as he was annoyed.

"Yeah, Doctor, they were leaving." Amelia pointed out in a quiet voice, trying to avoid the gaze of the gigantic eye.

"Leaving is good." The Doctor agreed, nodding his head slightly.

"Never coming back is better." He elaborated with an air of smugness that masked his anger well.

"Come on, then! The Doctor will see you now!" The Doctor abruptly bellowed up at the hovering thing, smirking a little at his own joke.

In response, the eye flew down to the roof. Leaving its broken glass-like ship and landing in front of the group. This sudden movement caused Rory and Amelia to jump back in surprise and fear, but the Doctor remained unwavering. Not at all bothered by the Atraxi's actions, suspecting that it would do as much. He did raise an eyebrow when it scanned him, but really he expected that as well.

"You are not of this world." The Atraxi boomed once it finished its scanning.

"No, but I've put a lot of work into it." The Doctor asserted, looking away from the eyeball to try and hide his mild offence. Absently, he pulled his new braces up over his shoulders. Deciding that right now was definitely the best time to resume getting dressed.

Amelia's eyes widened as, at long last, her suspicions were confirmed. The Doctor was an alien. She was friends with an actual alien. Thankfully, of all the aliens she'd met thus far, the Doctor seemed like one of the nicer ones.

There was so much she wanted to say; she had so many questions. Her mind buzzed from the excitement of it all. But she understood that the Doctor was kinda preoccupied at the moment, so she kept quiet. For now.

"Oh, um...I don't know." The Doctor murmured to himself as he looked over the small selection of ties he'd left hanging around his neck.

"What do you think?" He asked, holding one of them up for the Atraxi to see.

"Is this world important?" It inquired in its massively loud voice, entirely ignoring the Doctor request for fashion advice.

"Important? What's that mean, important? Six billion people live here. Is that important?" The Doctor demanded, really fighting to keep his anger under control. As he spoke, he began removing the ties one by one, launching the ones he liked less over his shoulder. Not really caring where they ended up.

"Here's a better question. Is this world a threat to the Atraxi?" He inquired right back, swiftly and arrogantly taking the reigns of the apparent interrogation.

"Well, come on. You're monitoring the whole planet." The Doctor spat impatiently when the eye didn't respond, carelessly tossing another tie behind him in Rory's general direction. 

"Is this world a threat?" He repeated with more of an edge to his voice—anger seeping through the cracks in his calm facade, despite his attempts to keep it at bay.

With the Doctor's tone spurring it into action, the Atraxi created a hologram between the two. It was a low-quality projection of the planet Earth, acting as a physical representation of the eye's thought process. As the projection slowly spun in front of them, it flashed with an array of different historical events.

Amelia couldn't have put a proper name to any of them, but a few of the images looked vaguely familiar. While Rory was more hung up over the fact that it was an actual proper hologram, he didn't really take note of what it was depicting. If it wasn't for the fact that it was being produced by a massive, terrifying eye, he might have asked how exactly it worked.

During all of this, the Atraxi almost looked contemplative as it mulled over the Doctor's question. Though it was hard to tell, seeing as the Atraxi was only a floating eyeball. And floating eyeballs weren't really known for being very expressive or known at all really.

"No." The Atraxi eventually answered, its voice at its usual booming volume. The hologram shifting back to an image of the planet now the eye had its answer.

"Are the peoples of this world guilty of any crime by the laws of the Atraxi?" The Doctor continued tersely, finally selecting a tie he liked.

The hologram flitted through another selection of images before turning back into the Earth once more.

"No." The Atraxi replied once again, coming to its conclusion a lot quicker this time around.

This notion diminished Rory's slight curiosity of the hologram significantly, being taken over by fear once more. Hundreds upon hundreds of crimes were committed around the world every day. Theft, arson and murder made an unpleasantly regular appearance in the news and not to mention the number of wars and other atrocities that had occurred throughout history.

If none of that broke the Atraxi's laws, then Rory shuddered to think what Prisoner Zero could have possibly done to earn its place in their prison. He decided he didn't want to know.

"Okay. One more, just one. Is this world protected?" The Doctor asked, but it sounded more like a command than a genuine question. As he fussed with his chosen tie, putting the thing on at long last, his gaze never left the offending being before him. The dark, swirling anger in his eyes was a wild juxtaposition to the rest of his carefully schooled features.

Multitudes of horrifying and intriguing creatures flashed through the Atraxi's hologram, some of which seeming unnervingly familiar to Rory though he wasn't entirely sure where he'd seen them before. Unconsciously, Amelia stepped slightly forward to get a better look at what she could only guess were genuine snapshots of aliens. She probably would have gotten a lot closer in her awestruck state if it wasn't for Rory's firm grip holding her back.

"Because you're not the first lot to come here. Oh, there have been so many." The Doctor declared, sounding almost boastful.

The images continued to flick past like some kind of never-ending slideshow of terror. But before the Atraxi could finish looking through all the information at its disposal, the Doctor started talking again.

"And what you've got to ask is, what happened to them?" He questioned darkly before turning to face his companions for the first time since they arrived on the roof. Like the Doctor had figured, Rory had been catching all the ties he'd been tossing over his shoulders. That fact alone was enough to break through the Doctor's simmering fury and bring a small smile to his face. 

But his companions did not return the expression. In fact, they both seemed frozen in a state of shock. Not that the Doctor didn't understand, of course, they had both been through a lot. A few hours of sleep would do them all some good, he mused offhandedly.

Sauntering across the short distance towards the pair, he retrieved the tweed jacket still clutched in Rory's arms. Even this didn't get him more than a passing glance from the two of them. Perhaps more than just a few hours of sleep would be in order, the Doctor pondered further, before swiftly shoving the jacket on his person.

As all this transpired, the Atraxi's projection had changed from monstrous beasts to somewhat normal-looking people. Though moderately easier to look at, neither Amelia nor Rory could tell you what significance these seemingly random people had. None of the faces shown looked remotely recognisable to the pair.

They were, however, considerably recognisable to the Doctor. Seeing as they were his past incarnations, all him just slightly different aesthetics. And when the most recent version of himself appeared, he knew it was time for the finishing blow.

Stepping forwards, uncomfortably close to the Atraxi, purposefully disrupting the hologram as he knew it was no longer needed.

"Hello, I'm the Doctor." He stated with more confidence then he had all day. And, as he felt the regeneration energy inside him finally calming down after what felt like an age, he knew why.

Standing here facing down the newest threat, about to save the day as he always did. Proudly decked out in his new outfit, which he now deemed complete with the addition of a bowtie and jacket. The Doctor finally felt like he was himself again, or perhaps he should say he finally felt like his new self...

Well, whatever the proper wording was, the Doctor could wholeheartedly say he finally felt whole.

"Basically, run." The Doctor said. His expression and voice a cheerful contrast to the sinister threat lurking beneath his words.

A threat that the Atraxi did not take lightly. After its brief analysis of the Doctor's personal history, it decided that angering him any further would not be in anyone's best interest. Retreating back up to its hauntingly beautiful ship, it began to spin at worryingly high speeds as sparks of electricity danced between the aircraft's sharp tendrils.

This aggressive and sudden movement began to cause quite a disruptive breeze, ruffling the group's clothes and hair erratically. The Doctor's fringe was blown out of his face, and his jacket billowed around his midriff. Amelia's new pinafore whipped angrily at her legs, and her hair flew around like it had a mind of its own. She ducked behind Rory in a meek attempt to hide from the freezing wind. And Rory himself, well, he was mostly unaffected by the breeze.

Sure it was cold and harsh, but he wasn't wearing anything incredibly loose, and his hair was too short to be notably disturbed. The only thing the wind did do was blow one of many ties he was holding out of his grasp. It flew out of his hand, over the roof and away.

Not that he noticed, not that any of them noticed. Not with the astounding spectacle happening in the sky before them.

Then, without warning, the ship took off. Apparently, now having built up enough momentum, it blasted away towards the horizon, and the trio watched it go until it was out of sight.

Caught in the whirlwind that the Atraxi left in its wake, a wheezing sound wrung out. The sound went unnoticed by the two humans, too caught up in watching the ship leaving the atmosphere.

It was noticed, however, by the Doctor. The familiar sound pulled him out of his musings as he realised it was emanating from him. But it wasn't just the sound; there was also a sudden heat coming from his newly acquired tweed jacket. A wave of confusion hit him as he reached within his inside pocket.

Pulling his hand back out, he looked at the heated object only to see his TARDIS key. It was steadily glowing in the middle of his palm. Vaguely, the Doctor recalled moving it to his new outfit when he'd been getting changed, along with a few other items he had on his person. Though why the key was suddenly reacting this way was lost on him.

But, unsurprisingly, it didn't take him too long to figure it out, and when he did, a dawning look of wonder spread across his face.

"They're gone," Amelia uttered breathlessly, still partially hidden behind Rory.

"Does that mean it's over? Like, properly over this time." She asked, gaze never leaving the sky.

"I bloody hope so," Rory sighed in response, feeling indescribably exhausted.

"Still don't think you needed to drag them back here just to tell them off." He commented in an almost teasing tone, fear slowly seeping away now that the danger appeared to be gone for good. Or at least for now.

"Kinda seemed like you only did it to...show...off." Rory continued to say but trailed off at the end when he glanced over at the Doctor only to notice he was nowhere to be seen.

"Doctor?" He called out in surprise, turning to survey the whole roof but not finding a trace of the man in question. Briefly, he glanced down at Amelia just to make sure she was still there. Thankfully she was.

"Wait, where's he gone? Doctor!?" She cried out, also taking notice of the Doctor's absence and quickly becoming distressed.

"She's ready!! She's finally ready!!" They heard a familiar voice bellow gleefully from somewhere far below.

"Doctor!" Amelia shouted back, dashing from behind Rory and towards the edge of the roof.

"Amelia!!" Rory gasped, reaching out in an attempt to stop her but failing miserably, dropping all the ties in the process. Because of this, he was forced to run towards the edge of the roof after her.

Catching her by the back of her pinafore just before they reached the edge, he held her back at a relatively safe distance but close enough that they could still see the ground below.

"There he is!" Amelia announced with vigour, pointing for emphasis.

And she was right. He was impossible to miss. Down there, running at inhumanly fast speeds past hysterical hospital staff and the abandoned fire engine, was the Doctor.

"How on Earth did he get down there so fast? Without either of us noticing??" Rory questioned incredulously as he watched the no-longer-raggedy-but-still-quite-ridiculous man make a mad dash across the hospital forecourt.

"DOCTOR!!" Amelia screamed in a last-ditch attempt to get his attention, but it was too late. The Doctor was already too far, and they watched as he careened down the road out of view. She did, however, catch the attention of a few of the frantic people on the ground below.

"And he's gone," Rory stated, shaking his head with a resigned look in his eyes.

"Where's he even going? And what's he talking about? 'She's ready', who's ready?" He went on; the disbelief was still very present in his words. In mild wonder that, even after all the insane things he'd seen today alone, the Doctor could still totally baffle him with an irritating amount of ease. But somewhere in the back of his mind, he thought maybe the Doctor was right; perhaps he did ask quite a lot of questions. Whether his questions were stupid or not was still up for debate.

A small gasp from the person next to him shook him out of his thoughts. Looking down, he saw that Amelia no longer seemed distressed; on the contrary, her entire being was now radiating excitement. She was practically vibrating on the spot.

"What?" Rory asked dimly, not understanding where the sudden shift in her mood had come from.

"I know where he's going," Amelia whispered with an air of reverence like she was divulging some precious secret. As she turned to look at him, the smile on her face was almost blinding.

"Oh, yeah?" Rory encouraged with a small smile despite his confusion. Her overflowing happiness was clearly rubbing off on him.

"Yeah! And I know who he's talking about!" Amelia enthused, bouncing on the spot, utterly incapable of containing herself.

"Right," Rory spoke placatingly as he inched them further away from the edge of the roof. He hadn't wanted to be that close in the first place, but now with Amelia's overly excitable behaviour, the risk of one of them falling was steadily increasing.

Thankfully, Amelia didn't seem to care about being near the edge anymore, letting Rory pull her away. Whatever she'd figured out was apparently far more important to her than where she happened to be standing—much to Rory's relief.

"Well, would you mind cluing me in? Because I'm totally lost." He admitted once he felt they'd moved to a safe distance.

"Do you remember the box? The blue one. It was in the garden at the house." Amelia questioned, her voice jittery from excitement.

"The time machine?" Rory asked in response with only mild uncertainty.

"Yes! Yes, the time machine. Well, do you remember when we ran out of the house away from Prisoner Zero?" Amelia continued eagerly, getting a small nod from Rory.

"And do you remember how the Doctor tried to open the box but couldn't and when I asked him why he said 'she's rebuilding'?" She enquired hurriedly, becoming more and more frantic as time went on.

"Um, no, not really. I was kind of distracted by aliens invading my house from all sides and threatening to kill me." Rory answered with a hint of sarcasm.

"And, honestly, at that point, I was kinda convinced you were all just symptoms of a psychotic break." He muttered resignedly, looking away with an unendingly tired look on his face.

"Well, whether you remember or not, it did happen!" Amelia insisted, entirely glossing over Rory's last statement.

"The Doctor said 'she's rebuilding', 'she'! He called his time machine a 'she'! And he just said 'she's ready', do you know what that means?" She went on, her voice rising in pitch the closer to her conclusion she got.

"It means the Doctor, like a lot of guys I know, insists his vehicle of choice is a woman for no apparent reason. Ha! Behind all this space stuff, he's just a regular, old bloke." Rory replied with a slight smirk, finding that idea quite amusing.

"No! It means the Doctor's time machine is done rebuilding, and if the time machine is done, maybe the Doctor is as well! You know how he kept saying he wasn't done yet? Well, maybe now that his time machine is, he is as well! Maybe they're connected somehow!" Amelia rambled giddily whilst bouncing on the spot.

"What does that even mean?" Rory asked, looking more confused now than when the conversation had begun.

"I don't know!" Amelia exclaimed happily.

"But I can't wait to find out! And I can't wait for you to see the inside of the time machine! I think it's called the TARDIS? But whatever it's called, it's amazing!" She went on, hands flapping animatedly. Rory smiled at her antics despite still not being entirely sure why she was so excited. At least she seemed happier then she had earlier.

"Come on!!" Amelia yelled, abruptly grabbing Rory hand and dragging him towards the roof's fire exit.

"Wait! What are we-?" Rory began to protest but was cut off when the door slammed behind him.

And then the roof was empty once more. The only sign that anything had occurred there was the small pile of ties, discarded and forgotten. Gently fluttering in the breeze on the now-empty roof.

~~~~~

Getting back to the house took longer than either of the pair would have liked. Amelia felt like she'd waited long enough to get her answers, and Rory just wanted to sleep. But nothing can ever just be simple.

Firstly, once they got down to the hospital's lower floors, they were bombarded by hysterical hospital staff with a never-ending amount of questions. Questions about the Atraxi and whatever was wrong with the sun. Questions about the whereabouts of Dr Ramsden and the happenings up in the coma ward. Questions about the false fire alarm and the stolen fire engine. Questions about the Doctor.

Questions that Rory didn't know if he was even allowed to answer, let alone how to. And these people were his colleges, people he'd known for years, so it wasn't like he could just ignore them.

But Amelia didn't care what Rory thought he could or couldn't do; as far as she was concerned, they were going home now. She had questions of her own, and the answers were not here in this disarrayed hospital.

So, eventually, when Amelia finally managed to drag Rory away from the seemingly endless amount of people trying to rope them into awkward conversations that went nowhere, they finally made it outside. That's where they were met with yet another hurdle.

At some point, between them arriving at the hospital and now, Mr Henderson had driven away. Despite his promise to wait.

It wasn't surprising, considering everything that had happened while they'd been inside. But it also quite a hindrance to the duo's attempts to catch up with the Doctor. It didn't, however, hinder the steadily growing flames of Amelia's irritation.

Looking around the hospital forecourt, there were still a few people hanging around outside. Thankfully none of them were patients. They'd all been moved back into the safety of the hospital, and it was safe now that murderous aliens had been removed from the equation.

And on that train of thought, Rory had to wonder what was happening with the coma patients. Now that Prisoner Zero was gone. But with all the effort Amelia had put into dragging him outside, attempting to go back inside now felt pretty unwise.

Obviously, the fire engine was outside as well, now abandoned. But it wasn't of any use, seen as neither Amelia nor Rory knew how to drive. After a couple of seconds of thinking it over, Rory ruled out public transportation. He didn't think the taxi ranks would still be open, not right after an alien invasion. And even if they were, he couldn't phone them anyway; the Doctor had used up all his minutes.

Taking all of this into account, if they wanted to get home at some point today, they had but one option.

"Welp. Looks like we're gonna have to walk." Rory stated with a sigh, shoving his hands in his pockets.

"Walk? From here??" Amelia squawked incredulously.

"Yep," Rory affirmed with a look of nonchalance.

"But...but it's so far! And it'll take so long! And I'm tired!" Amelia whined, slumping her shoulders for emphasis.

"I know. I'm tired too, but it doesn't seem like there's much else we can do." Rory said resignedly with a shrug.

"Well, we...we could...um?" Amelia murmured, glancing around the forecourt for inspiration.

"Oh! There are some bikes chained up over there! If we just break the locks somehow-!" She exclaimed, gesturing wildly at a nearby bike rack.

"No. Nope. Absolutely not." Rory denied, shooting that idea down before she could even finish.

"But-!" Amelia began to retort.

"No buts. You have committed enough criminal acts for one day, and you're certainly not roping me into any of it." Rory stated, cutting off her attempted excuses and getting nothing but a scowl in response.

"Now, unless you can come up with anything that doesn't involve illegal activity, we're gonna be walking home." He continued with an air of finality.

And so walk they did. Rory and Amelia walked all the way down the long road back to town and then continued on toward home. Rory even gave Amelia a couple piggyback rides, which was sweet, but it just made the journey last even longer. The pair were utterly exhausted by the time the house came into view. But finally, after what felt like years, they were home.

Amelia couldn't believe it; the answers to her literal hundreds of questions were so close. No more murderous aliens, no more running from danger, no more threats of global destruction. Nothing was going to come in between her and the knowledge she craved. Not to mention going in the time machine again, with Rory this time. Her mind was ablaze with wonder.

With one last surge of energy as the finish line came into view, she set off sprinting. Through the front gate, along the garden path and around the side of the house. She flew past the still bashed open back door, dashing over the patio's cracked flags, right up to the pretty plant archway into the garden and then...

...nothing.

The garden was empty.

Well, no. It wasn't empty. The swing was still there, across from the dilapidated bench and the twelve-year-old shed and the many, many weeds. Even the cricket bat Rory had dropped earlier was still there.

But there was no TARDIS. No Doctor.

"But...but he should be here." Amelia gasped in shock and out of breath.

"He wouldn't just..." She uttered, sluggishly stepping towards the square of flattened grass in the middle of the garden. The only sign the time machine had been there at all.

Amelia listened to the slow footsteps walking across the patio towards her, swiftly making Rory's presence known.

"Why's the box not there?" He asked bluntly, too drained to pick up on the sadness emanating from the girl.

"I don't know." Amelia barely whispered.

"Did the Doctor leave?" Rory blundered on, trying and failing to suppress a yawn.

At that, Amelia dropped to her knees, hands grasping at the flattened grass in front of her. She just couldn't take anymore. Her head was a swirling mess of unanswered questions and confusing emotions; Rory's words only made it worse. And she was just so damn tired.

A frustrated wail ripped its self from her throat, and tears pricked the corners of her eyes for the umpteenth time that day.

"Amelia?" Rory said unsurely, stepping unsteadily closer to the now clearly distressed girl.

"He wouldn't just leave! He wouldn't!" She cried desperately. He wouldn't, couldn't just leave her. In a time she didn't know, in a place she no longer belonged. Not after everything that happened, everything they'd been through.

"He wouldn't just leave me! He's my friend, and he promised!" Amelia went on, voice becoming hoarse. He had promised but did it even matter? She knew from experience that no one ever kept their promises, not even her. So why would the Doctor, as awe-inspiring as he was, be any different? Was he even her friend? He'd never said so outwardly, but she'd thought he was. Now she didn't know; it felt like she didn't know anything. And she was so sick of not knowing. The flattened grass beneath her fingers began to tear under her increasingly tight grip.

A small, bitter voice in the back of Rory's mind pointed out the irony of her statement, but he shut it down instantly. This wasn't about him.

"Oh, Amelia." He spoke softly, crouching down beside her and placing a hand on her shoulder in an attempt a comfort.

"NO!" Amelia wailed, flinching away from his hand so forcefully she nearly fell over. She could practically taste his pity. She didn't want Rory's pity. She wanted answers. She wanted to sleep. She wanted the Doctor to come back and make things better.

Or maybe...maybe she wished she'd never met him in the first place. No, she didn't wish that, did she? Again, she didn't know. But what she did know, what she wanted above all else. She just wanted something, anything that would stop her from feeling like this.

Rory's hand came back to her shoulder, giving it an affectionate squeeze. She didn't pull away this time; she was too exhausted to even try. Or maybe she didn't want to; maybe she wanted comfort whether it was fuelled by pity or not.

"He's coming back," Amelia demanded quietly as the last shreds of her composure crumbled to nothing. She collapsed against Rory, openly sobbing into his chest. She felt his arms encircle her back gently as if she was as fragile physically as she felt emotionally. It just made her cry harder.

Despite her tears, her belief would not let up. A mantra cut through the confusion of her cluttered mind, it said: 

The Doctor is coming back. He's got to come back.

It chanted over and over, in a never-ending loop. And Amelia had to believe it was true. She just had too.

~~~~~

The Doctor couldn't believe it. The TARDIS she...she was everything. She was gorgeous. She was breathtaking. She was sexy!

Her new form was beautifully elegant yet steadfastly robust, clinically intricate yet warm and inviting. Yes, the TARDIS was everything a time ship should be, and her newest look was assuredly her best work yet. It was sure to impress Amelia and Rory once he got back. The Doctor couldn't wait.

He hopped and skipped around the console with a charming lack of grace, flipping switches and pressing buttons with the ease of someone who had been doing it for years. Despite the fact, he'd only had full reign of this particular layout for no less than a couple of minutes.

Checking the monitor one last time, just to make sure he'd got the location right. The Doctor bounded down his brand new stairs, through the TARDIS doors and out into his companion's back garden.

Only now, much like the first time he'd arrived in this garden, it was night. Great.

He turned back to the TARDIS to go and see how badly he'd messed up the dates this time when he heard a door open behind him.

Turning back around, he was met with a very shocked-looking Amelia, who stood in front of the now open back door. She was wearing a denim jacket thrown over a pink pyjama top and some gingham bottoms. Running shoes were still part of her outfit, but they were a different pair to the ones she'd gotten at the hospital. She also seemed to be wearing a necklace, but it was shoved inside her top and hidden from view.

But apart from the wardrobe change, she didn't look much different from when he'd seen her ten minutes ago, so the dates couldn't be that off. Hopefully.

"Doctor?" Amelia asked warily.

"Yeah, hi. Sorry about running off earlier. Brand new TARDIS. Bit exciting." The Doctor explained, briefly glancing over his shoulder to grin at the time ship in question.

"Just a quick hop to the moon and back to run her in. She's ready for the big stuff now." He elaborated happily, giving the TARDIS an affectionate pat.

"It is you. You came back." Amelia uttered reverently.

"Of course, I came back; I always come back." The Doctor assured, still grinning.

At that, Amelia began walking towards him, leaving the back door open behind her. She didn't stop until she was stood right next to him in front of the TARDIS. And once she did stop, she just stood there and stared up at him, and she didn't exactly look happy to see him. The Doctor's grin started to waver.

"This is for disappearing," Amelia stated tersely.

"What's for- OW!" The Doctor tried to ask only to be interrupted by Amelia, socking him right in the arm. Now she may have been younger than him and relatively short, but she didn't half have one hell of a right hook.

"And this is for coming back." She continued without missing a beat.

"Amelia, wait-!" The Doctor tried to protest only to be interrupted once again, but instead of hitting him, Amelia caught him in a fierce hug.

"You floppy-haired, alien dope." She mumbled into his tweed jacket.

For a moment, the Doctor was stunned into silence, and during this moment, he reevaluated Amelia's appearance. Because at first glance, she didn't look much different, but upon closer inspection, there were a few discrepancies compared to how she'd looked when he'd last saw her.  
Her hair was no longer resting on her shoulders; it now stopped just below her ears. Her face was a little less rounded, it was barely noticeable, but compared to earlier, her features definitely seemed more angular. And she even seemed quite a few centimetres taller.

All of these changes didn't seem like things that could've happened in a couple days. Or even a couple of weeks. Even so, the Doctor had to hope he hadn't been gone too long; he didn't even have the excuse of a broken TARDIS this time. But there was only one way to know for sure.

"Amelia?" The Doctor asked, breaking out of his momentary silence.

"Hmmm?" Amelia murmured, once again into the Doctor's jacket.

"How long has it been?" The Doctor questioned with an air of uncertainty.

"How long has it been since what?" Amelia questioned right back, leaning away to look up at the Doctor, ending the hug.

"You know what." The Doctor answered quietly, sensing his impending guilt.

"Since you kidnapped me? Since we stopped Prisoner Zero and saved the world from being blown up by eyeballs? How long has it been since then?" Amelia deadpanned, looking mildly unimpressed.

"I wouldn't exactly say 'kidnapped'..." The Doctor tried to excuse, visibly squirming where he stood.

"Most people would." Amelia countered, crossing her arms with a smirk.

"Well, I'm not 'most people'. Do I even look like 'most people'?" The Doctor retorted indignantly.

"Nope," Amelia snorted, shaking her head.

"Anyway..." The Doctor emphasised, attempting to get back on topic.

"Yes, how long has it been since then?" He reiterated, his tone becoming more serious once again. The mirth left Amelia's expression as well, staring the Doctor down with a level gaze.

"Five years." She said soberly.

"Oh." The Doctor uttered.

"Yeah." Amelia agreed, once again looking quite unimpressed.

"I...I didn't. Amelia, I'm sorry I-," The Doctor began to apologise, which honestly felt like all he was doing since he regenerated, only to be interrupted by Amelia for the third time this conversation.

"Yeah, I figured it hadn't been that long for you when you started talking to me like you'd seen me yesterday," Amelia explained nonchalantly.

"I saw you ten minutes ago." The Doctor admitted somberly.

"That explains why you're still wearing the clothes you stole. Even the bowtie." Amelia pointed out, starting to smirk again.

"Bowties are cool." The Doctor stated coolly, self-consciously adjusting his new bowtie.

"And anyway, like I told Rory. I didn't steal these clothes; I borrowed them." He assured, his indignance springing forth once again.

"Oh, planning on returning them, are you?" Amelia teased with a knowing look.

"...Maybe." The Doctor blatantly lied, crossing his arms and narrowing his eyes in irritation.

"Well, good luck with that. The hospital got shut down a couple of months after everything that happened." Amelia admitted with a shrug.

"It...what?" The Doctor asked, taken aback, unfolding his arms in surprise.

"Well, yeah. It was kinda inevitable with all the resignations, patient complaints, all the health and safety code violations and not to mention the murders." Amelia explained resignedly.

"'Murders'!?" The Doctor repeated incredulously.

"Yeah, Prisoner Zero? Ring any bells?" Amelia sarcastically reminded him, giving him a look like he was stupid.

"Yes, but who did it murder? Wait, did the coma patients die?" The Doctor questioned worriedly, not knowing if prolonged exposure to Prisoner Zero's psychic abilities could have that sort of effect.

"No, they all woke up once Prisoner Zero was out of the picture. Just took a bit longer than Rory, I guess." Amelia assured him.

"And surprisingly, their waking up didn't exactly help the hospitals case. Not with them all spouting about being possessed by a monstrous snake." She continued with a slight shrug.

"No, it was the doctors and the nurses in the coma ward that got murdered. Prisoner Zero was already at the hospital when we arrived, remember? So, unless there was secretly a murderer there that day, I'm pretty sure it was Prisoner Zero's doing." Amelia concluded.

"I had no idea..." The Doctor uttered dismally, having thought for once everyone got out unscathed.

"Mmmm. Oh, and Rory was the main suspect," Amelia added as an afterthought.

"What??" The Doctor squawked.

"Uh-huh, he was one of the only coma ward nurses left alive, and he was seen at the hospital when he wasn't even supposed to be there. It didn't exactly make him look innocent," Amelia explained as she leaned against the TARDIS doors.

"He's a nurse! Of course, he's supposed to be in the hospital." The Doctor defended, seeming affronted.

"He was off the clock, Doctor. He'd been sent home by his boss earlier that day. She was called Dr Ramsden, and she was one of the doctors who got murdered. Again, didn't look great." Amelia explained further with a hint of irritation.

"But it wasn't Rory." The Doctor stated unhappily.

"I know that, and you know that, but the police didn't. Rory's lucky they couldn't find enough evidence to actually arrest him." Amelia admitted sounding tired.

"So he didn't go to jail?" The Doctor asked hopefully

"No, Doctor, Rory didn't go to jail," Amelia replied with a bemused smirk.

"Oh. Well, good." The Doctor said with a small nod.

"Heh, yeah. Didn't stop the entire population of Leadworth from believing it was him, though. It didn't stop the hospital from firing him either." Amelia elaborated indifferently, with another shrug.

"They fired him..." The Doctor uttered with a sigh.

"He probably blames that on me as well, doesn't he?" He asked resignedly, looking far removed from the excitable mood he been in when he'd arrived.

"No, he doesn't blame you, Doctor. He...well, you'll just have to talk to him for yourself." Amelia replied, glancing away momentarily.

"Rory says it was bound to happen either way. With or without alien intervention. And it's not like it matters; the whole place got shut down two months later." She attempted to reassure.

"Besides, if it wasn't for you, Rory and I wouldn't have had a leg to stand on." Amelia continued with a half-smile.

"What do you mean?" The Doctor questioned.

"You know, the documents and the money," Amelia stated like it was obvious but getting nothing but a blink in response.

"Oh, come off it. I know it was you; there's no one else it could have been." Amelia accused, pushing off the TARDIS and crossing her arms in a huff.

"I honestly don't know what you're talking about." The Doctor admitted.

"Really? I mean, if it's only been ten minutes for you, I guess you wouldn't have had time to. But if it wasn't you..." Amelia trailed off, looking unsure of herself for the first time in this conversation.

"What happened?" The Doctor asked, becoming serious once more.

"Well, it was a couple days after you left," Amelia began, ignoring the Doctor's slight wince.

"And Rory and I were kind of on edge. Rory had just been accused of mass-murder and fired, and I was trapped twelve years in the future where I was presumed dead. So, needless to say, tensions were running high." She continued, sheepishly looking away from the Doctor's visibly mounting concern.

"And we were just sitting in the house when we heard this sound. Rory had no clue what it was, but I was sure it was your time machine. A sort of wheezing sound, right?" Amelia described, looking for confirmation.

"Yes, the TARDIS does make a sort of wheezing noise." The Doctor agreed thoughtfully.

"I know, right. But when we went outside, there was no sign of you or the TARDIS. The only thing there was a pile of envelopes." Amelia explained with a look of mild disappointment.

"'Envelopes'?" The Doctor parroted.

"Yeah, and inside were all these documents. There was stuff about inheritance money for Rory from a relative he'd never heard of. Papers claiming Rory was my legal guardian. And a bunch of fake IDs and stuff saying I was born in 2000." She rattled off what she could remember.

"It was everything you needed." The Doctor stated.

"Kinda, yeah. Rory thought it was a hoax or something, but it all turned out to be real. I was so sure it was you. Who could have done that besides you, who could've even known to do it?" Amelia protested in confusion.

"It does sound like something I'd do." The Doctor reasoned, mulling it over.

"Yeah, but it wasn't you, so..." Amelia stated with a sceptical look.

"Who said it wasn't me?" The Doctor inquired.

"Literally you, a few moments ago." Amelia pointed out huffily.

"I said I didn't know about it, not that I wouldn't do it." The Doctor corrected with a smug glint in his eye.

"But it's already happened." Amelia deadpanned.

"Time machine, remember?" The Doctor chuckled, patting the TARDIS affectionately.

"I thought you said you couldn't go back and change things. That it would cause a paradox." Amelia reminded him angrily.

"I'm not changing anything; in fact, I'm ensuring it happens. There'd likely be a paradox if I didn't do it." The Doctor explained, slightly amused.

Amelia didn't say anything at first, glancing away in irritated confusion. Trying and failing to wrap her head around all the ways paradoxes did and didn't occur. There were so many variables, so many rules. She'd read up on time travel and such after the Doctor left. Even though science fiction probably wasn't as accurate as the real deal, she had to get answers somehow. But she didn't fully understand it, not in the way the Doctor clearly did; it seemed almost instinctual for him. After a few moments of pondering, she just sighed and looked back at the Doctor tiredly.

"Time travel is...confusing." She stated simply.

"Well, you're not wrong there." The Doctor agreed, starting to grin once more.

"Now, come along, Pond." He cheered, reaching to open the TARDIS' door, only to be stopped by a hand on his arm.

"I'm not Pond anymore. It's Amy Williams officially now." Amelia informed quietly.

"Oh. I don't like that. Amelia Pond was a great name." The Doctor complained bluntly, grin disappearing again.

"Yeah. Well, you don't get to have an opinion on it," Amelia warned with a stern look.

"Ah...Right." The Doctor uttered, glancing away and dropping his arm back to his side. Suddenly remembering the reason she needed a name change in the first place.

"Can I still call you Amelia? Since you only really need a different name whilst you're here." The Doctor requested a tad abashedly.

"I suppose, but who said I was leaving Leadworth?" Amelia asked with a wry look.

"You- you don't want to travel with me?" The Doctor questioned, eyes widening in surprise.

"Well, why would I? You've not exactly proven it's a good idea or even a safe one." Amelia rebuked, smirking again.

"Oh, so it's proof you want?" The Doctor inquired, previous excitement beginning to seep back into his features. Raising his hand between the two of them, he snapped his fingers.

The TARDIS' door swung open with a bang, revealing the brightly golden interior. Amelia was immediately entranced.

"It..." She whispered, barely noticing as she stepped through the door.

"'It'?" The Doctor prompted, stepping in after her and closing the door behind them.

"Sorry, she. She's changed." Amelia amended, still whispering in awe.

"Yeah, she does that." The Doctor affirmed, grinning as he bounded up the stairs. He moved towards his new console and sent them into the vortex.

He hadn't expected the shift in pronouns; he never really commented on what people referred to the TARDIS as. It was hard for most people to comprehend what his beloved ship really was. So it wasn't like he was gonna question it when someone made an attempt.

"She's beautiful," Amelia commented, gazing around at everything in wonder and making the Doctor smile even wider.

"A lot tidier as well." She added, gaze finally landing on the Doctor.

"Hey, now! Be fair, she had just crashed last time you saw her." He protested, halting his actions at the console just to pout.

"Still not exactly proving that it's safe to travel with you." Amelia mused as she made her way up the stairs.

"That doesn't count; it was a one-time thing. I'd just regenerated." The Doctor quietly defended, resolutely staring at the levers and switches in front of him.

"'Regenerated'? Wait, are you...are you finally going to explain what you meant when you said you were 'brand new'?" Amelia asked in astonishment, freezing in place near the top of the stairs.

"Well, I did promise you, didn't I?" The Doctor stated honestly, looking back at her with a half-smile.

Amelia made a small noise that was somewhere between a laugh and a gasp. She'd waited five years for this, for answers. She'd long stopped thinking she was ever going to get them, and yet. This man, this ridiculous, idiotic, impossible man, had blown her expectations clean out of the water once again. There was no way the Doctor could understand the full magnitude of what he'd just said. No way he could know that with that one sentence, he'd convinced her to go with him. And yet, he had.

She nodded stiffly, not feeling able to do much else.

"Regeneration is this...thing we Timelords do." The Doctor informed vaguely, jumping right into his explanation.

"'Timelords'? That's your species?" Amelia questioned, starting to regain her wits.

"Yep. When we Timelords are about to die, all our cells heal themselves to stop it from happening. To essentially cheat death. But there's a price, to do it you've got to change. Become someone 'brand new'." The Doctor went on, moving around the console to check over the different panels.

"So, when we first met, you'd just escaped death?" Amelia clarified with a look of concern.

"Err yes, no. Well, kind of, but not really." The Doctor muttered, fumbling with his answer. Stopping his trip around the central column, he turned to give her a reassuring look.

"It doesn't matter what happened before. I'm me now, and I'm right as rain." He insisted, gesturing to his person as if that was proof enough.

Just then, something popped out of the TARDIS console. It was vaguely cylindrical with a matt silver metal casing. It had a small leather grip, a button on one side and a green light at the end.

"Oh! A new one, lovely!" The Doctor exclaimed, grabbing his new sonic screwdriver and giving it a quick go. Buzzing it at nothing in particular.

"Thanks, dear." He whispered, patting the TARDIS gratefully.

As he was attempting to put it away in his jacket pocket, Amelia gasped. She grasped her necklace, the one the Doctor had noticed earlier, and yanked it out from under her top. And dangling at the end of the now revealed chain was something the Doctor didn't think he'd be seeing again.

It was his old sonic screwdriver. It'd been fixed up; its wiring was no longer hanging out, and it no longer looked burnt. And even though it didn't look exactly as he remembered it, it was undeniably his sonic.

"Snap!" Amelia cheered, buzzing the apparently repaired device at him.

"How- how did you fix it?" The Doctor asked, astonished.

"It's not really fixed. Doesn't do all that crazy stuff it used to. It's just an LED light, a sound effect and some new wiring. It's more or less just a toy now. But it's a fun keepsake." Amelia revealed happily.

"We went back later, and it was still just there, in the middle of that field. So I brought it home and patched it up a bit." She continued, letting the device drop and hang from her neck once more.

"And you wear it on a necklace because?" The Doctor asked teasingly.

"Reasons," Amelia replied, crossing her arms with a small scowl.

The Doctor just laughed as he started moving around the console once more.

"So, all of time and space, everything that's ever happened or ever will. Where do you wanna start?" He asked with unrestrained anticipation.

"I thought you were preventing a paradox with an envelope of fake IDs." Amelia pointed out, moving to stand next to the console as well.

"Oh, yes. Right. Paradox first, everything else second." The Doctor agreed, staring intently at the panel in front of him and pretending he hadn't forgotten about the paradox.

"You're so sure I'm coming?" Amelia observed, her smirk creeping back onto her face.

The Doctor glanced over at her. Even from across the control panel, it was impossible to miss the overpowering wonder in her eyes. Her deep-seated hunger for adventure, that had clearly been starved for a while. Was she coming with him? The answer was obvious.

"Yeah, you're coming." The Doctor declared, without a doubt in his mind. He flipped the dematerialisation switch, sending them flying off through the vortex.

And, hopefully, this time, he'd actually get the dates right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, if you somehow made it this far, well done!! And thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it, at least somewhat. And if any of you (for some reason) want to read more, I am planning on writing another one. But this took me a year, so don't hold your breath. Bye.


End file.
